


Just two Inches

by NyGi



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Jealous Doctor, Post-Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, Rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-14
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-03-07 13:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 87,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3175418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyGi/pseuds/NyGi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Dalek misses Rose's lever by mere inches, Rose never gets stuck in Pete's World. Instead she continues travelling with the Doctor, dealing with events still to come and her growing relationship to the man with two hearts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Doomsday

**Author's Note:**

> Hola! I've been posting this story on ff.net, but since I started reading here I thought I'd give posting it a go. Still not sure how everything works so I might mess up for a bit, but at least the updates will be farely regular until this story is caught up.

Chapter 1  
Doomsday

Rose was holding on to the magna clamp for dear life. And as always in a life with the doctor: quite literally.  
Cybermen and Daleks were flying past her so fast; she could hardly make out their forms. One of the Daleks zoomed past her in a blur, missing the lever by mere inches. For a second Rose allowed herself to think what would have happened if it had actually crushed into the lever: Would it have moved? Would the breach have closed too early? Would she have been able to pull it back?  
She looked up to see the doctor smiling at her widely, his expression a mixture between pure joy and maniac excitement only he could muster: The Doctor. Her impossible Doctor.  
Soon the flying creatures became less and less and out of the corner of her eyes Rose saw something move in front of the breach. Pete had materialized, arms stretched out wide, as if trying to catch something. He stared at her for a second, saw hers and the Doctors joyful expressions, smiled at her, pushed the yellow button and vanished again into another universe.  
The pull lessened, the breach folded like a sheet of paper and just like that there was a whole universe between Rose and her Mum. She let go of the clamp, starring transfixed at the plain, white wall that had been a gateway to hell just seconds before. She knew what this meant for her now, but she didn’t feel a thing. No sadness, no anger and certainly no regret. The truth, the finality of her situation, hadn’t sunk in yet. Rose knew. Right now she only felt numb. And the Doctor’s hand sliding into her own carefully, as if unsure what to do. Unsure? The Doctor? The man who always ran head-first into danger? The man who never needed or even wanted a plan?  
“I’m sorry, Rose. So sorry.”  
Mutely Rose looked up into his sad, pitying eyes. She knew it wasn’t his fault. If anything, it was hers. But she hadn’t been lying: She had made her choice a very long time ago. She would never leave him.  
“I’m... I’m just really tired. Can we go home?”, she asked and was shocked how broken and small she sounded.  
The Doctor starred at her for a moment. “Home?”, he whispered unsurely.  
It took a moment for Rose to realize that he didn’t know if she meant the Estate.  
“Yeah, home. Back to the TARDIS.”  
He smiled at her, barely hiding the relief he felt, squeezed her hand and let her back to the TARDIS. Where she slipped into her always warm and welcoming bed and slept. Slept for hours, comforted by the soft noises that always accompanied life in the TARDIS.

She woke hours later, still tired and feeling as if her whole self was drowning in water. Everything seemed to be so incredibly far away. She made her way to the kitchen, not really hungry but feeling the need to do SOMETHING, anything really.  
The table was set for one person, a steaming cup of tea and banana pancakes just waiting for her. Rose stared at the scene for a whole minute. Had the Doctor done this for her? Mr. “I don’t do domestics”? She smiled softly, set down and enjoyed her breakfast. It was true, she had just lost her Mum, but... well, at least she knew that her mother was happy and safe somewhere. She had Pete and Rose... Rose had the Doctor.  
She found him half an hour later, standing in the console room and starring at some monitors. Even after two years, Rose had no idea at all what they did.  
“Thanks for the breakfast.”, she said. The Doctor had been so engrossed in whatever he was doing, that he almost jumped when he heard her voice.  
“Well”, he said, still sounding uncertain, “I thought you could use it.”  
“It was very nice.”, repeated Rose and suddenly felt pretty awkward. She had no idea what to do next and the Doctor looked at her as if she was a bomb, ready to explode at any second or harsh movement.  
“What are you doing?”, she asked. She wasn’t really interested, half of the time she didn’t understand what he was saying anyway, but she loved how he tried to explain things to her. And right now, she just really needed to hear his voice to reassure her that she wasn’t all alone in the universe. That he was still there.  
“Oh, I’m looking for something... you know.”, he answered evasively, refusing to meet her eyes.  
“Actually, I really don’t.”, Rose said, now curious.  
“Well, I’m looking for some crack or breach between the universes.”  
“Why?”, she asked somewhat suspiciously.  
“Just in case.”, he muttered quickly. His hands were fiddling with some pieces of metal, still not looking at her at all.  
“In case of what?” Rose was quickly loosing what little patience she could muster today. What the hell was he talking about? And why did he act like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar?  
“In case you wanted to go back.” He answered quietly. Rose felt as if her insides had turned into ice. Did he want her to go? He had sent her away and she had just come back. Not for a second had she considered the mere possibility that the Doctor might not want her to stay with him! What if... what if he didn’t want to be the only person she had left in the universe? What if he thought of her as a burden? What if now she wasn’t fun to be around anymore?  
“Oh.”, was all she could say. Unable to hide the deep hurt she felt, she continued softly: “Do you want me to go? Because: I don’t have to stay here if you don’t want me to.”  
“What? No! That wasn’t what I meant. I thought... I thought maybe now you regret it, you know... not staying with your Mum.”, the Doctor answered quickly.  
Rose looked at him, as if he had completely lost his mind. “Every time you sent me away, I come back. I told you. I told you I would never leave you!” Her voice rising up in anger now.  
“I just don’t want you to have any regrets.”, he said and finally looked at her, “I don’t want you to wake up in a couple of month and realize, that there is no going back.”  
“There was no going back for a very long time now. I promised you forever.”, she answered stubbornly.  
“Okay then... Where to now?”, he asked, his voice still sounding rather awkward, as if he couldn’t believe that she was still there and promising not to go anywhere.  
“I don’t know... How about finally seeing the dogs without noses?”, she suggested.  
His eyes lit up and he started to make his usual dance around the console, all the way chatting the same way he always did, with her standing by and pushing or pulling something he pointed out.  
The Doctor with Rose Tyler in the TARDIS. Just like it was supposed to be.


	2. The Angry Bride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a thank you for my first ever kudo :) Sadly this is unbetaed and I fear you'll find a lot of mistakes, please feel free to tell me right away. I always love to improve my english

Chapter 2  
The Angry Bride

Three months, one week and, six days since Canary Wharf.  
Even though Rose did her best not to think about it, she counted every day.  
The Doctor did his best to keep her busy, always taking her to see new and exciting places, and Rose tried to smile and have fun, she really did, but... She couldn't help it.  
She had considered talking to the Doctor about it, but she was sure that he felt responsible about what had happened to her Mum and she didn't want to add to that. He carried too much guilt already.  
"So, Rose Tyler, tell me what you want to do next!", Rose heard the object of her musings shout from his usual spot near the console. She herself had just woken up, but since the Doctor rarely slept, he was as giddy and excited as most of the time.  
She considered his question for a moment. There really was something she wanted, needed to do even, but she wasn't sure how the Doctor would react to that. She looked around for help, an inspiration maybe, and froze.  
There, only a few feet away from her, stood a woman. In a wedding dress of all things!  
The Bride gave a little shriek and turned around to stare right at Rose, who stared right back. The Doctor, who was still watching his precious monitors hadn't noticed a thing.  
"Hello?", Rose asked carefully, "Who are you?"  
"Who me?", the Doctor looked up and stared at her as if she had gone crazy. That was when he noticed the Bride.  
"What?!"  
"Who the hell are you?!", the redhead shouted at him in a loud and booming voice.  
The Doctor didn't answer, he just stared and her open-mouthed and repeated: "What?"  
"Where the hell am I and how did I get here?!"  
Seeing as the Doctor still looked too shocked to answer, Rose decided that it might be time to interfere.  
"Ah, hi.", she said waving slightly at the Bride, trying to hide her confusion and nervousness behind a friendly smile.  
"I'm Rose and this is the Doctor."  
"Fine Rose or whatever, where am I?!", The Bride shouted again and Rose flinched a little. Boy, that woman could shout.  
Finally the Doctors brain decided to kick into gear, he stepped more or less in front of Rose and said: "You're in the TARDIS."  
"The what?!"  
"The TARDIS.", the Doctor repeated slightly annoyed.  
"That's not even a proper word. You're just saying things!"  
Rose couldn't help but snicker and the offended look on the Doctors face.  
Their unexpected visitor didn't seem to share Rose's sense of humour. Rose really had to admire her for not looking scared, only really, really pissed off.  
"How did you get here?", she asked carefully and shared a questioning look with the Doctor who slightly raised his left eyebrow, indicating that he had no idea.  
"Obviously when you and your skinny boy toy kidnapped me!", the Bride answered venomously.  
"We didn't kidnap you...", Rose started to answer at the same time as the Doctor asked: "What is a boy toy?"  
"Are you a friend of Narys? Yes, you look like one. Oh, this practically smells of Narys. Did she put you up to this?"  
The Doctor looked at Rose and mouthed "Narys?" and she answered by raising her shoulders. What the hell was going on here?  
"Never mind that!", the angry Bride spit out and ran towards the door.  
"No, wait!", the Doctor shouted and sprinted after her, but he didn't reach her in time. She had already thrown the doors wide open and now stood transfixed, starring at the open space in front of her.  
She seemed to deflate right in front of their eyes. Every bid of anger leaving her. All that was left was a confused, scared woman in a wedding dress. If the situation hadn't been so serious, Rose was sure it would be pretty funny.  
"So. Like Rose said: I'm the Doctor. What's your name?", the Doctor asked carefully, while pulling the scared woman slowly away from the open door.  
"Donna.", she answered and turned around in a quick motion. As if she couldn't bare starring outside anymore.  
"Well, nice to meet you, Donna.", Rose shipped in happily and flinched when she realized how forced her own voice sounded.  
The Doctor meanwhile shut the doors and let this hand slide into one of his infamous pockets, coming up with his sonic screwdriver.  
"Do you have any idea how you got here?", Rose asked her carefully.  
"No.", Donna answered mutely.  
"You are human, right?" The Doctor looked at her as if she was his new favourite science project and started to push some buttons on his screwdriver.  
"Yes, why? Is that optional?", Donna whispered and started to look back and forth between Rose and the Doctor.  
"Well, for me it is.", he answered in a matter of fact voice and started to wave the screwdriver in front of Donna's shocked face. Rose smiled at her sympathetically.  
"What we're you doing, when you got here?", he asked offhandedly and didn't even notice when both women stared at him incredulously.  
"I'm in my wedding dress! What do YOU think I was doing?!", Donna shouted at him, "Bowling?!"  
The Doctor looked a little frighted at her and Rose started to find the whole thing pretty amusing again. At least Donna had found her courage.  
"Ah, well...", stuttered the Doctor and looked hopefully into Rose's direction, who had decided that THIS was definitely his problem now.  
"So, this is a ship?", Donna continued, not waiting for the Doctor to come up with something.  
"Oh yes, it is.", the Doctor was quick to respond. Thankful, that he could actually answer her this time. But mostly occupied with his screwdriver, which had started to make it's usual noises. Donna starred at it, as if it might explode.  
"Mh, no. Nothing. Nada. Rien. Nichts. Nothing in your blood. In your DNA, nothing to indicate how you got here."  
"Will you stop it?! Stop waving this thing in front of my face!"  
The Doctor flinched back a little and Rose was again amazed how a man like the Doctor, who faced all kinds of dangers on a daily bases, could be so awkward around one spunky woman.  
„Take me back already!"  
"Yes, right, back.", the Doctor answered distractedly and ran towards the console, "Where exactly are we going back to?"  
"St. Mary's. Chiswick. London. England. Earth. The Solar System!", Donna bid out through her teeth and this time Rose really started to chuckle, when the Doctor looked like a kicked puppy at her harsh words.  
"Right. London.", he answered and started his dance around the console again.  
"So, are you a Martian, too?", Donna asked Rose while still eyeing the Doctor suspiciously.  
"Oh no, I'm from London.", laughed Rose and was thankful that Donna hadn't started crying or had gone into shock.  
"Did he kidnap you, too?", Donna continued.  
"That's a tough question", answered Rose and smiled. She was sure Donna could be a great person to talk to, if she wasn't as stressed out as she was right now. "So... you're getting married today?"  
Donna's face fell: "I was halfway down the aisle. Oh no, they'll be so worried."  
"Don't worry, we'll be there in... now.", Rose continued, as she felt the TARDIS shutter around her.  
"Oh thank God!" And Donna ran straight out of the door, followed directly by Rose and the Doctor.  
"This is NOT St. Mary's! It's not even Chiswick! What kind of Martian are you?!"  
"I'm not a Martian.", the Doctor answered slightly annoyed now, but mostly he seemed worried about the TARDIS.  
"What do you think went wrong?", Rose asked him carefully, looking at the ship, that had become her home, as well.  
"I don't know. Maybe she ingested something. I really don't know." And he stroked the blue exterior lovingly.  
"You think it has something to do with Donna?"  
"Probably, yes. It would be a weird coincident otherwise."  
"Speaking of: Where IS Donna?"  
"What?" both Rose and the Doctor looked around in a near panic, finally spotting Donna trying to hail a cap. Apparently she didn't have much luck.  
"This people think I'm drunk. Or a transvestite.", Donna told them in a slightly hurt voice, when they reached her.  
The Doctor looked Donna up and down and Rose was pretty sure, that Donna could hardly stop herself from slapping him.  
" What's up with all the trees? Is it Christmas already?", asked the Doctor, hopping impatiently from one leg to the other, while Rose pulled her sweater closer.  
"Duh. Maybe not on Mars, but here it's Christmas Eve.", replied Donna in a snarky voice.  
"Donna, I'm really not...", but before the Doctor could finish his sentence Donna screamed "Taxi!" again, cutting him short in mid-sentence.  
"Doctor.", began Rose cautiously, "Don't know about you but I don't have any money on me."  
Realization evident on his face, the Doctor turned to Donna and said: "Donna, neither of us has any money. How about you?"  
"Money? Where would I put money?! I'm in my wedding dress! I don't have any..."  
Rose stopped her with a quick "anyway", before Donna could work herself into a full stride. "Here, you take my phone and call your family. The Doctor and I are gonna get some money, ok?" She all but shoved her precious pink phone into Donna's hands and pulled the Doctor, who was starring at Donna again, with her.  
"She is pretty rude, isn't she?", he remarked, as they both stood waiting in front of an ATM.  
"And ginger.", Rose replied with a soft smile.  
"Yes." the Doctor sighed wistfully.  
"I'm sure she'd be great fun... if she weren't so stressed.", Rose continued grinningly, "She certainly seems able to shut you up. Which is quit the feed."  
"I have no idea what you're referring to.", the Doctor answered, sounding slightly miffed. While storming forward to point his sonic screwdriver at the ATM to get some cash.  
Rose couldn't help but laugh openly, turned around to look in Donna's directions and saw chillingly familiar Santas playing a Christmas song.  
"Doctor... Did you see those Santas?"  
"What?", the Doctor grabbed the money, turned around as well and blanched.  
"Oh oh, not good."  
"Donna!", exclaimed Rose in a panicked voice and started running towards the angry bride, with the Doctor following closely behind and finally overtaking her, to see Donna entering a cap, waving at them and shouting: "Thanks for nothing!"  
"Did she just steal my phone?", Rose asked the Doctor.  
"Never mind that! Didn't you see the driver?! It's one of the Santas! Back to the TARDIS, now!" And off they ran again.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"This was the most ridiculous thing we've done in a very long time!", huffed Rose, as the Doctor held the fire extinguisher into the open TARDIS Door.  
"I thought your flying was fantastic!", the Doctor grinned at her.  
"Yeeees. I've set her on fire."  
"I'm sure that wasn't you. For a spaceship, she doesn't do that much actual flying", he tried to reassure her.  
Rose decided to let it go and looked worryingly and Donna: "Did we miss it?"  
"Yeah.", Donna replied mutedly and set down at the edge of the building they had just parked the TARDIS on.  
"Well, there's still the honeymoon.", remarked the Doctor, while sitting down between them , while Rose couldn't help but roll her eyes at him. Really? That was what he was going for?  
"I suppose.", Donna answered, while looking down at the city below, "It's just a holiday now, though."  
"Why did you want to get married at Christmas anyway?", he continued, completely oblivious to the fact that Rose was poking him to shut up.  
"Can't stand it. Honeymoon in Morocco. Warm. Lovely."  
"What I don't get, is what the Santas want with Donna.", Rose tried to interrupt the Doctor before he managed to depress Donna even more.  
"And what exactly are they anyway?", Donna chipped in.  
"Oh, your basic scavengers. We met them last Christmas, too.", the Doctor answered with a faraway look in his eyes.  
"What was last Christmas?", Donna's confusion was obvious, when the Doctor looked at her sharply and said: "Great big space ship hovering over London...No?", he continued, when he saw Donna's uncomprehending face.  
"I had a bit of a hangover."  
Rose couldn't help it: she laughed.  
"Anyway, back to my question please."  
"And what a good question it was, as always.", suddenly the Doctor sprang into action, pulled out his omnipresent screwdriver again and pointed it at Donna, who starred at him, as if she had only just remembered, that he was actually there.  
"Mh, why would they want you? It's weird, you're not special, you're not powerful, you're not connected, you're not clever, you're not important..."  
Rose hid her face inside her hands, as she heard the Doctor marching right into his doom.  
"Oi! Do you get slapped a lot? That might explain your hair.", Donna growled at him and the Doctor, still seemingly oblivious, just looked at her, as if she was his new favourite science project. Again.  
"What is it that you do for a living?"  
"I'm a temp at HC Clemmons, that's how I met Lance. He's the head of HR. One day he just made me a coffee. That never happens! Nobody gets the temps a coffee!"  
"How long ago was that?", the Doctor asked, his brain going in full on thinking mode.  
"Six Months."  
"Well, that's pretty fast to get married, isn't it?"  
"Yes, but he kept nagging me and someday I just gave in.", answered Donna with a light, happy smile that made the Doctor suspect something else.  
"What is it that HC Clemmons does anyway?"  
"Security Codes and stuff. Just a fancy name for locksmith, if you ask me.  
"Me... ", the Doctor muttered and slipped his hand into one of his famous pockets again and produced a small, golden ring.  
"Here.", he said and held it out to Donna.  
"Shouldn't you give that to your girlfriend over there?", Donna remarked grumpily and looked at the ring with disdain.  
The Doctor ignored her comment completely and took her hand. "It's a biodamper. It will hide your signature until we can find out what those Santas are after."  
Donna grumbled something incomprehensible. "You okay, Rose? You look kind of far away."  
Surprised the Doctor turned around to look at his unnaturally mute companion, who had a forlorn look on her face and stared over the rooftops. He followed her gaze and flinched. The Powell Estate, she was looking at her home.  
"What? Oh sorry, I was lost there for a moment.", Rose answered, with a small, sad smile blinking away tears. The Doctor grabbed her hand and pressed it comfortingly.  
"Maybe we should look at the TARDIS, there's still the Reception to go to, right?"  
"Oh, everybody will be so worried!", exclaimed Donna.  
Or not. When the three arrived at the reception, the party was in full swing. People were laughing, eating and dancing and nobody even noticed their arrival at first.  
"You had the reception without me?!" Donna's unbelieving exclamation cut through the party atmosphere as a man, who had just been dancing with a slender, blond woman turned around and looked at Donna in shock.  
"They had the reception without me!", Donna shouted and looked at the Doctor and Rose for confirmation.  
"Yes, I can see that.", answered the Doctor, with his usual tact.  
"And why not? It's all paid for after all.", said the blonde woman in a snarky voice.  
"Thank you, Nerys.", Donna huffed at her and immediately everyone started talking at once. Asking and demanding answers... Until Donna started to sob.  
Rose starred at her in Wonder. Was she really loosing it? Now?! That was when Donna hugged her fiancé, turned around and winked at Rose and the Doctor.  
"Ohhh, I REALLY like her.", smiled Rose and grinned at the Doctor.  
Soon after that people calmed down and the party was in full swing again, with everyone dancing and talking. Except for Rose and the Doctor, who were standing at the bar, watching everything.  
Or better yet: The Doctor was watching everything, probably running a million ideas through his head, while Rose was wishing that the Doctor might try to relax for once. She could really use a distraction right now... a dance would be perfect.  
"Doctor...", she stared, but was interrupted by a nice looking young man, who smiled at her and said: "Hi, I'm Mark... would you... I mean... would you like to dance?" He looked at her with big hopeful eyes and Rose found herself smiling at him. If the Doctor wanted to just stand around, fine. She was determined to have some fun.  
"Hey Mark, I'm Rose. And yes, I'd like that very much." She followed him onto the dance floor and wasn't surprised to see that the Doctor didn't even notice her leaving.  
Mark actually was quiet nice and a good dancer, so Rose stayed on the dance floor for two songs before the Doctor joined them, patted Mark on the back and asked, if he could cut in. Mark looked questioningly at Rose, who smiled and nodded, and then left them alone.  
"So, what have you found out?", Rose asked the Doctor lightly, as he grabbed her hand and placed the his other one her hip.  
"What makes you think I found something? Maybe I just want to dance. I am a good dancer.", he told her, frowning slightly.  
"Of course you are.", she replied, only sounding a little bit teasing.  
"Weeeeell, I DID find something. The company Donna works for, it's a cover for Torchwood."  
Rose froze. Her wide, unblinking eyes staring up at the Doctor. "Torchwood", she whispered.  
"Yeah, and that can't be a good thing."  
"Do you think it's a coincident?"  
"Oh, how I'd like to believe that, but I don't. I really don't.", the Doctor told her quietly.  
The danced silently for a while, totally content with each other, until Rose spotted a man, showing a clip to a couple of guys.  
"Doctor, look over there. Do you think they filmed Donna vanishing?"  
"Ohhh, brilliant, Rose, absolutely brilliant!", he took her hand and they ran over to the man holding the camera. "Can we see it?", Rose asked and smiled blindingly at him.  
"Sure, yeah. The guys said I should sell it. I thought more about the news. It's really something."  
Together they watched in fascination, as Donna screamed and erupted in golden light. Whereas Rose just thought it looked amazing, the Doctor starred at the monitor in shock.  
"No. It can't be. No!", he exclaimed, running both his hands through his already messy hair.  
"What can't be, Doctor?", Rose asked him worryingly.  
"That's Huon energy, it's ancient, as old as the universe, but it no longer exists, it's... Oh no, it's so old, it can't be hidden by a biodamper!", in a panic he grabbed Rose's hand again and pulled her along, running over to Donna, who seemed to have a lot of fun dancing with Lance.  
"Donna, we need to leave. Right away!", he exclaimed and all but shoved her off the dance floor.  
"What are you on about now?!", Donna starred at him in anger.  
"They are coming. We need to leave. Now.", with that he dragged both women behind him to the next door and froze in his steps, when they saw the Santas surrounding the door.  
"Is there a back exit?", he asked urgently.  
"Yes, this way. What's going on? You said I was save.", Donna's voice quivered a little in fear.  
The Doctor didn't even slow down, so Rose took it upon herself to explain the little she knew: "The Doctor found out that the energy inside you is too old, to be hidden by a biodamper."  
"Oh, isn't that...", but she didn't get to finish her sentence, as they reached the other exit, which was surrounded as well. A group of Santas was standing outside, one of them clutching what looked like a weird kind of remote control in both hands.  
"Great, we are trapped."  
"Doctor.", Rose suddenly asked with deep worry in her voice, "Do you see those trees? Donna, where did you get them?"  
"I didn't.", Donna answered warily.  
"Everyone! Get away from the trees!", the Doctor shouted and started to bodily pull people back.  
"For god's sake, he's completely mad.", exclaimed Donna's mother angrily, "Oh look, how pretty."  
Rose turned around in shock, when baubles started to lift of the tree and rise into the air. Everyone looked at them in awe... until they started to fire into the crowed. And then the Santas stormed into the room as well. For a moment Rose was lost in the mayhem that ensued. People running and screaming, she couldn't even find the Doctor. And then suddenly his voice rang loud and clear through the room: "You know, what you should never, never ever do? Let a man with a sonic device near a soundsystem!" The high, well-known noise that followed had most people holding their hands over their ears, but the Christmas decorations and Santas fell to the ground. Unmoving.  
"Doctor, why would someone pay the Santas to kidnap Donna?", Rose asked softly while the Doctor kept scanning the dead Santa by his feet.  
"I'm not sure someone did.", he answered, his brows creased in concentration as he let something slip into his ever expanding pockets, "Look at this. They are being controlled. They're not acting on their own."  
"Doctor, there are people hurt. They need your help.", Donna's desperate voice cut in fom their left side, where she was checking up on a small child.  
"Not that kind of a doctor.", he answered without even looking at her.  
"I just think you might be able to help.", Donna continued softly, looking around at her family and friends with worried, guilty eyes.  
"Right.", the Doctor exclaimed, sprang to his feet and grabbed Rose's hand, "let's find out was this is all about. Lance! Lance, you got a car Rose and I can borrow?"  
Lance looked up in confusion when he heart the Doctor's voice and looked at Donna for confirmation, who took a deep, calming breath and asked: "Where are you going?"  
"HC Clemmon, of course!", he answered and started towards the door, dragging Rose along.  
"What?!", Donna shouted after him, "You're not going without me, Martian. You are the one who keeps saving my life! And what's got my job to do with this? "  
"Everything!"  
After one very awkward car ride, the four stood in a large office space starring at blueprints.  
"So... Why exactly are we here again?", Donna asked, not even trying to hide her annoyance, as the Doctor didn't even seem to listen to her.  
Rose took pitty on the woman, who was still in her weddingdress and had been through so much already that day. "HC Clemmons was a cover the Torchwood Institute", she explained with a slight hitch in her voice. Torchwood. Oh how she hated everything to do with that dreadful place.  
"What's Torchwood?", Donna asked.  
"They were behind the battle of Canary Wharf." the Doctor answered without even looking at her. Rose was sure that he didn't like to talk about it either.  
"What's that?"  
For the first time, both Rose and the Doctor not just looked, but starred at her. "Cybermen invading London... Daleks in the sky...", Rose started.  
"I was in Spain.", Donna answered with a shrug.  
"They had Cybermen in Spain...", the Doctor continued incredulously.  
"I was scooberdiving."  
"That big picture, Donna. You keep on missing it." Rose had to stiffen a laugh at his words. It was nice if it wasn't her he centered his "dribbeled-on your-shirt-look" on.  
"More importantly, Torchwood was destroyed... But HC Clemmons stayed in business... Doing what exactly?"  
"Does it have something to do with the Huon-Energy inside Donna?", Rose asked with a worried look at the woman.  
"Quiet possibly, yes.", he answered. A second later his head whipped around as he studied Donna intently.  
"What's Huon-Energy?", Donna's voice wasn't even panicky anymore, she just sounded so tired, that Rose wanted to go over and hug her, wondering why that wasn't was her FIANCÈ was doing.  
"It's impossible, for starters. Huon-Energy doesn't exist anymore. My people got rid of it ages ago. The only remnant know is... inside the heart of the TARDIS. Ohhhhhh, that's it!" Giddy as a child he grabbed the next best thing and started to explain, while bouncing up and down full of excitement, "When the Huon-Particles inside you activated, they drew you to the only other source... our TARDIS."  
Rose heart skipped a beat, when she heard the Doctor say these words: "Our TARDIS. OUR TARDIS" Was that it then? She wasn't a guest, not a companion... she belonged there? With him?  
Totally oblivious to her inner turmoil, Donna and the Doctor continued their discussion: " I'm a pencil inside a mug?"  
"Yes, you are. Sums you up. Now...! Let's find out what's really being done here.", he took Rose's hand and entered the lift.  
"Tell me, Rose, how is it possible that we there is a button for lower basement, when there is none on the buildings blueprints?"  
"Torchwood snug in and built it.", she answered, grinning widely at him. Oh, how she loved this. Riddles, thinking, investigating, saving people. She knew, the Doctor feared, that she regretted staying with him, that she'd rather be with her Mum, Mickey and Pete. But she didn't. Not one second. And maybe, she thought guiltily, that was the whole problem.  
"It needs a key.", Donna interrupted Rose's musings again, as she entered the lift as well.  
"Well, we've got this.", the Doctor grinned and held up his screwdriver.  
"Lance?", Donna asked her fiancé, who hadn't said one thing the whole time, expectantly.  
"Maybe I should...", he started nervously.  
"Get in!", Donna interrupted him in a rather commanding fashion. Lance entered mutely and pretty frightened looking. Poor Lance, Rose thought, he definitely wasn't companion material. Unlike Donna.  
"To honour and obey.", the Doctor commented under his breath.  
"Tell me about it, mate.", replied Lance the same way.  
"Oi!", warned Donna sharply. At the same time Rose hissed: "Rude."  
"Looks like you are one to talk.", Lance mumbled at the Doctor, who looked like a kicked puppy, while the two women glared at him dangerously.  
"Oh look, transportation.", he tried to deflect their attention as soon, as they existed the weirdly silent lift.  
They stopped in front of a door, that was labelled as "Authorized Torchwood Personnel Only", so naturally the Doctor had to take a look.  
"You wait here.", he told his three companions, while looking up the ladder, that seemed to stretch on forever, "I'll be back in a hurry."  
"You better.", Rose told him, concern evident in her voice. She had always worried about him, but now? Now it felt as if he was all she had left. Well, she thought, if she was honest with herself... he really WAS the only thing she had left. What would she ever do without him?  
"Always.", he tried to assure her and started to climb up, out of sight.  
"Donna.", Lance now decided to speak up, "Are you sure about this? What are we going to do?!"  
"What?", Donna asked him, evidently not having heard a word he had been saying.  
"What are we going to do?", Lance repeated desperately.  
"Oh, I thought July.", Donna answered without even looking at him, and Rose couldn't help but snicker at her words.  
It was a shame, really, she thought. Donna wasn't made out for a normal, boring life. Excitement and danger seemed to suit her much better.  
The Doctor chose just that moment to literally drop down, exclaiming: "Thames-Flood-Barrier. We are right underneath. Torchwood must have snug in and build this place."  
"Sounds like them.", Rose grumbled.  
"What? Like a secret base hidden right under a major city landmark?", Donna asked wide-eyed.  
"I know. Unheard of.", the Doctor answered in a businesslike manner, before winking at Rose and taking her hand again, pulling her through another door, which held a lab.  
"Uhhhhh, Rose, look at this!", he exclaimed grinningly, "It's stunning, isn't it."  
"Absolutely.", he answered in the voice she especially reserved stuff she didn't get anyway.  
"What does it do?", Donna asked, while looking at the obviously complicated machinery stretching through the whole room.  
"Particle extrusion.", he answered running through the room, "Hold on... Ohhhh, brilliant. They've been manufacturing Huan-Particles. Cause my people destroyed them. Unravelled their atomic structure."  
Rose cut him of, before he could wind himself into a lengthy explanation, "How can they manufacture something they can't even know about?"  
The Doctor paused and looked at her in awe. "Absolutely no idea. Which makes it even more brilliant. Brillianter. Brill..."  
"We get it, Doctor, really.", Rose smiled at him affectionately.  
"Your people? Who exactly are your people?", Lance intercepted, suddenly very interested, "What company do you represent?"  
"Oh, Rose and I, we are freelancers, aren't we? But this lot has been rebuilding them. Ohhh, they've been using the river! Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base... and the result: Huon particles in liquid form.", he said, holding up a vial with something looking like water inside it.  
"And that's what's inside of me?", Donna asked mutely.  
Instead of responding, the Doctor turned something on top of the vial and the liquid started to glow... and so did Donna.  
"Oh my God!"  
"See? Absolute genius. Because the huon particles need a living body to catalyse... then trade the body and...", here a stopped, obviously having realized something important. And Rose felt excitement well up inside of her. Whatever it was he had just figured out. It must have been a very, very important piece of the puzzle... if not the whole thing itself.  
"Ahhhh, the wedding! Yes, that's it. You're getting married!", he started again, voiced raised in excitement, "And you were walking down the aisle! Oh, you're body is a battleground! There is a chemical war inside. Adrenaline..."  
The Doctor ranted on, but Rose didn't manage to follow him any longer, she was distracted by Donna's less then happy face. And even if the Doctor didn't seem to see what happened next coming, Rose certainly did.  
Donna slapped him right in his face.  
"What did I do?!", he asked her in hurt, almost boyish way.  
"Are you enjoying this?", she asked him in a much calmer voice, then Rose would have thought. Yes, she was sure now, Donna would make a great companion, "Right. Just tell me: This particles. Are they dangerous? Am I safe?"  
"Yes.", he hurried to reassure her. Oh boy, was this him a bad liar, Rose thought pityingly, as she watched Donna realize the same thing.  
"Doctor.", Donna tired again, "If your lot got rid of huon particles... Why did they do that?"  
And Rose was sure, that she already new the answer. She just needed to hear it from him.  
"Because the were deadly.", he answered, that unique mixture of pity, grief and guilt in his voice, that was so unmistakably "Doctor".  
"Oh my God.", Donna breathed, panic and desperation evident.  
"I'll sought it out, Donna. Whatever's been done to you: I'll reverse it. I'm not about to loose someone today. WE are not about to loose someone.", he promised her and squeezed Rose's hand tightly.  
"Oh, she's long since been lost.", a cackling voice, that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, rang through the lab. The Doctor tightened his grip around Rose's hand again, almost painfully so, as they all looked around for the source.  
Right at that moment, the wall directly in front of them started to raise.  
"I've been waiting so long. Hibernating at the edge of the universe. Until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken me."  
While the Doctor and Donna looked at the wall, that wasn't a wall at all, Rose's eye followed Lance, who had been suspiciously silent throughout their adventure. Well, she thought, maybe he wasn't very talkative... with a woman like Donna, that might me a good thing. But right now, Lance opened the door, he had stayed close to the whole time, lay a finger on his lips, when he saw Rose, and vanished through the door.  
At the same time at least a dozen robots, but without the Santa costume, appeared above them, pointing pretty big guns.  
"Uuuhhhh, look. Someone's been digging.", the Doctor said, completely ignoring the robots and looking down an enormous hole, that looked perfectly round, "Yes, very Torchwood. Built by laser. How far does it go?", he asked looking up.  
Rose starred at the hole in horror. She didn't like this. She didn't like it at all. The Doctor did not have the best track record when it came to him and impossibly deep holes. Panic welling up inside her, she grabbed the Doctors arm tightly, clinging on to him for dear life. Her hands started to shake, her head felt dizzy and she had trouble breathing.  
The unknown voice obviously answered the Doctors question, but she couldn't hear a thing. Everything felt so far away now, blood was rushing though her ears, drowning out anything else, but the Doctor's arm under her trembling fingers.  
"Rose?", Donna's worried voice sounded so far away, Rose almost didn't here it.  
Rose was thrown back into reality, as a gigantic, enormous spider materialized on a nearby platform, hissing and whizzing in some kind of evil pleasure.  
"Racnoss!", the Doctor uttered, starring at it in disbelieve. Had he even noticed that something wasn't all right with her? Rose asked herself bitterly, when she felt Donna's calming, reassuring hand on her back.  
"But that's impossible. You are one of the Racnoss."  
"Empress of the Racnoss.", she confirmed gloatingly.  
"If you are the Empress, where is the rest of the Racnoss? Or are you the only one?"  
"Such a sharp mind.", the Empress acknowledged simply. and Rose thought it was a testament to the Doctor's confusion, that he didn't answer her in anyway. Normally he couldn't help showing of his intelligence, no matter the danger they were in.  
"That's it.", he explained to Rose and Donna, "The Racnoss come from the Dark Ages. billions and billions of years ago. They were carnivores, omnivores. They devoured whole planets."  
"Racnoss are born starving!", the empress backed him up, "Is that our fault?"  
"They eat people?", Donna asked in a really repulsed sounding voice and Rose was kind of envious, that Donna could still be surprised about that. Had she been that naive, when she first started travelling with the Doctor.  
Instead of just telling Donna the truth about something, the Doctor did, what he liked to to the most: She let her see for herself.  
"HC Clemmons. Did he wear those black and white shoes?"  
"Yes, he did. We used to laugh, called him a fat cat in spats.", Donna answered enthusiastically. The Doctor just pointed to the huge spider web behind the empress, where remains of a body where visual. Wearing black and white shoes.  
"Oh my God!"  
"My Christmas Dinner.", stated the empress gleefully.  
"But you shouldn't even exist! The fledgling empires went to war against the Racnoss. They were wiped out!", the Doctor exclaimed almost in awe. But Rose did no longer listen. She had spotted Lance coming up behind the empress, carrying what looked like... was that an axe?! Donna had obviously seen him as well, for she did her best to distract the empress, by forcefully demanding an answer to how she had ended up with huon particles in the first place. Oh yes, Rose liked her more and more. Even the Doctor looked kind of impressed, stepping back to let Donna do her thing.  
Right until Lance not only failed to kill that giant spider, but started laughing in a cruel, twisted way. The Doctor stepped partly in front of Rose now, so he stood right next to Donna, when he whispered: "I'm sorry, Donna."  
"Sorry? Sorry for what?", she asked him and Rose finally removed her one hand from the Doctors arm to lay it on Donna's, "Lance. Don't be so stupid. Get her!", she tried to encourage her fiancé. Obviously not wanting to admit the truth.  
"God, she's thick. Month I had to put up with her. Month! A woman, who can't even point to Germany on a map."  
The look of utmost shock and betrayal, that crossed Donna's face, almost broke Rose's heart. Sick, sick bastard, she thought, for once not showing compassion or understanding, as she listened to the Doctor explaining, how Lance had poisoned Donna over month.  
"But... we were getting married.", Donna stated disbelievingly.  
"Well, I couldn't risk you running off. I had to say yes. And then I were stuck with a woman, who things the hight of excitement is a new flavour Pringle!", Lance spat at her.  
Rose had it know. She was sick of people trampling all over others. Hurting, betraying people they were supposed to love or protect, people who just took advantage of the trust others placed in them... Gelth... Slitheen... Torchwood... Satalite 5... Krillitans...  
"Shut up!", she screamed, "Just shut up!" For the first time the empress and Lance even acknowledged the fact, that she existent, while the Doctor explained what had happened to Donna.  
"How can you just stand there, you sick..."  
"Rose.", the Doctor interrupted her softly, "Don't. He's not worth it."  
"I will not have him there... abusing my friend!", she hissed, grabbing Donna's arm tighter.  
"Abusing?", Lance scoffed, "I deserve a medal for putting up with her."  
"Oh", the Doctor thundered at him, "is that what she's offered you? And what exactly are you? Her consult?"  
"That's better than a night with her.", Lance retorted venomously, pointing at Donna, who flinched as if he'd hit her.  
"But I... I love you.", she told him quietly.  
"That's what made it easy.", Lance rubbed it in. The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand tighter again. This time to stop her from bodily throwing herself at Lance to strangle him.  
"It's like you said, Doctor. The big picture. What's the point of it all, if the human race is so tiny. And the empress... she can give me a chance to... to go out there and see it. The size of it all. I'm sure you understand that, don't you, Doctor?"  
"Who is this little physician?", the empress asked, before the Doctor could answer.  
"Mars.", Lance answered pointing at Donna, "She said Martian."  
"Ohhuu", the Doctor tried to deflect the question, "I'm sort of... homeless. But what's down there. The Racnoss are extinct. What's gonna help you 4000 miles down? That's just the core of the earth, isn't it?"  
"I think he wants us to talk.", Lance's patronizing tone made Rose want to punch him even more, "Well tough! All we need is Donna."  
"Kill this little Doctor-Man... and his angry little pet!", the empress chimed in, addressing the almost forgotten Robots above their heads.  
"Don't you heard them!", Donna screamed, stepping in front of Rose and the Doctor.  
"No, Donna, don't worry. It's all-right.", The Doctor tried to assure her, when the robots raised there weapons.  
"Take aim!", the empress commanded.  
"Wait! Except, I just wanna point out the obvious.", the Doctor tried to intercept the empress' speech, but she wasn't listening at all, "Ts ts ts, just hold on. Just a tick. If you think about it: The particles inside Donna activated and through her inside my spaceship. So... reverse it... and the spaceship comes to her." And only a split second later, Donna, the Doctor and Rose stood together inside the control-room of the TARDIS. The Doctor ran over to the console and threw them into the vortex, before running over to Rose and gripping both of her arms.  
"Are you allright?", he urged her desperately, "Are you hurt?!"  
"No", Rose assured him, "I think we should rather worry about Donna."  
"I'm talking about before. Your... your panic-attack. Are you all-right now?!"  
"That wasn't... I didn't... That wasn't a panic-attack!", Rose exclaimed in horror.  
"Was it?", she looked at the Doctor questioningly, almost pleadingly.  
"I think so, yes.", he said, hugging her closely.  
"Let's... let's talk about it later, yeah. Got other things to worry about right now.", Rose answered, leaning into his embrace even more.  
"This is a time machine. We've got all the time in the world. Actually... More then that.", he tried to cheer her up, but couldn't hide the deep concern in his voice.  
But Rose entangled herself from his arms and walked over to Donna, who said crying in the pilot's seat.  
"I'm sorry, Donna. So, so sorry.", Rose tried to comfort her, knowing full well, that there really wasn't anything she could say. What did you say to someone, who was just betrayed so... deeply? So they just sat there, Rose holding Donna, whispering nonsense and rubbing her back soothingly.  
"We've arrived.", the Doctor interrupted them carefully, "The beginning of earth. Further back, than we're ever gone before, Rose and I. Wanna come and see?"  
"Donna breathed in deeply, trying to collect herself. "I suppose.", she said and Rose smiled warmly at her. Donna was strong, stronger than anyone, even Donna herself, gave her credit for.  
"Come on.", the Doctor encouraged her, walking over to the TARDIS doors. "No human has ever seen this. You'll be the first."  
Rose smiled in anticipation. No matter the circumstances, she'd never get sick of this. The Doctor waited until the two women had reached him, before I opened the doors, saying: "Donna Noble... Dame Rose Tyler, welcome to the creation of earth."  
Rose didn't even hear the Doctor's explanation of everything. She was just starring in wonder and awe at space outside the TARDIS and Donna, she knew, did exactly the same. Tears and hurt seemed to be forgotten for a moment, as they all looked outside.  
"Where is the earth?", Donna asked, still not looking away from the scenery outside.  
"All around us.", the Doctor informed her, grinning happily, "In the dust."  
Rose managed to look at Donna in anticipation, what was her reaction going to be?  
"Puts the wedding in perspective.", Donna stated softly and Rose smiled at the Doctor, "Lance was right: We are just tiny."  
"But that's what you do. The human race. Making sense out of chaos. With weddings...", the Doctor explained joyfully, but Rose stopped to listen. These words weren't really meant for her, but for Donna. She didn't need to hear them. She'd rather just enjoy the beautiful view. That's it, she thought, that's the reason I'm travelling. Seeing new and exciting things. Witnessing stuff none had ever seen before. She looked over to the Doctor and her smile grew even wider. Who am I kidding here? I'm not only here, because of that. It's a bonus, she thought, I'm here for HIM.  
Before she could congratulate herself for that very important piece of self-revelation, she was interrupted by the arrival of what looked like a spiky star, pulling in everything around it .  
"Ohhh, they didn't just bury something at the centre of the earth. They BECAME the centre of the earth!", exclaimed the Doctor, a look of pure fascination on his face.  
Right at that moment the TARDIS gave a frightening lurch and the Doctor slammed the TARDIS doors shut in front of them.  
"What was that?!"  
"Trouble!", the Doctor answered shortly, running over to the console.  
The TARDIS started to shake dangerously now and while Donna held on for dear life, Rose ran over to assist the Doctor in any way she could.  
"Particles pulling particles. They are pulling us back! Rose, pull that.", the Doctor directed Rose in a well-rehearsed way.  
"Can't we stop it? Reverse it somehow?", Donna screamed, no clutching nearby coral, as to not stand in the Doctor's and Rose's way.  
"No! We... but... oh!", the Doctor shouted, running over to the old extrapolator they taken from Margrete the Slitheen such a long time ago, wiring it into the TARDIS.  
"Haha!", he continued, when they suddenly stopped.  
"What did you do?", Rose asked as he ran outside the TARDIS door and they stood in a corridor outside the lab.  
"I couldn't stop it. I just rerouted us a couple of meters.", he explained, while listening to a nearby wall.  
"But I still don't understand...", Donna started, when something hit Rose from behind and everything went black.  
Rose's first thought was "Ouch!", followed closely by "Stop those drums!"  
"How are you feeling?", the Doctor's worried brown eyes appeared before her, when she finally managed to open her eyes.  
"Ouch.", she repeated mutely, feeling the grates below her. Why was she lying in the TARDIS?  
"What happened?"  
"Those robots must have hit you on the head. Found you lying on the floor... and Donna was gone.", he explained, barely contained anger in his voice.  
"Donna! Is she...?"  
"I'm here. I'm all-right.", Donna assured her and Rose finally sat up and turned around to see Donna kneeling behind her.  
"I carried you into the TARDIS and went to look for Donna.", the Doctor continued, his eyes still scanning her constantly, "Didn't really have the time to make sure you were fine. We can do that now."  
"I was just knocked out.", Rose said, angry at her self, "It wasn't the first time. Probably won't be the last time, either."  
"True.", chuckled the Doctor, but he wasn't fooling her. He was still incredibly angry. Well, she thought, he never took it too well, when someone hurt her, "The Racnoss are gone. So are the huon particles. Donna is all safe now. In fact, we've just landed outside her home."  
"Oh great!", Donna said and ran outside, followed slowly by the Doctor, who had helped Rose up and had his arm around her protectively.  
"What do you think about Donna?", he whispered.  
"I really, really like her. Why?", Rose asked and looked up at him.  
"Weellll, I thought about asking her to... you know, travel with us for a bit, but... can't do that without asking you now, can I?", he grinned at her and she felt pure joy bubble up inside of her. I had asked her. He had really asked her. Her opinion mattered to him!  
When they reached Donna, she stood outside the TARDIS and looked sadly at her parent's home, "I missed my wedding, lost my job and became a widow in one day... sort of."  
"I couldn't save him.", the Doctor answered quietly and Rose leaned into him. He always took every loss an a personal failure. She'd ask him later what exactly had happened, to assure him, that it really wasn't his fault.  
"He deserved it!", Donna spat out forcefully and Rose suspected, that she said it more to convince herself of that, rather than anyone else.  
The Doctor just looked at her and she faltered under his understanding eyes, admitting: "No, he didn't. I better get inside. They'd be worried."  
Rose followed her gaze to see her parents standing next to a Christmas tree, hugging each other closely. Christmas, she thought sadly, how great, how beautiful and happy had there last Christmas been. With her new Doctor, Mickey and her Mum. All of them getting along, laughing and just enjoying life. All gone now. Did her Mum and Mickey still celebrate Christmas together? They had grown so close, after she had started to travel with the Doctor. Her Mum had kind of adopted Mickey, who didn't have any family left. Hopefully they were happy now with Pete, living in a big mansion. The Doctor seemed to feel where her thoughts were going and held her even closer, rubbing circles on her back.  
"You should really appreciate this more, Donna.", Rose told her mutely, "Christmas with the people, who love you. Don't take them for granted."  
Donna looked at her with wide eyes, probably trying to figure out what had happened to Rose's family.  
"What do you think, Rose. Christmas without at least some kind of snow?", the Doctor chimed in, before Donna could say anything. E turned around and did something inside the TARDIS, that they couldn't see.  
A bright ball erupted from the TARDIS and exploded in the sky, only seconds later snow began to fall softly.  
Donna started to laugh and turn around herself in joy, as she opened her arms and just felt the snow around her and Rose let go of the Doctor, to do the same, Snow, real snow... no ash or other sign of destruction.  
"I can't believe you did that!", laughed Donna.  
"Oh, basic atmospheric excitation.", he answered, leaning against the TARDIS casually and lifting his arm, when Rose came over to join him again.  
"Merry Christmas.", Donna told them with an almost loving smile on her face.  
"Merry Christmas.", they answered simultaneously.  
"Sooo, what will you do with yourself now?"  
"Not getting married, for starters.", Donna sighed, "And I'm not gonna temp anymore. I don't know... travel? Walk in the dust."  
"Well, you could always... come with us.", the Doctor told her with hopeful eyes.  
"No.", she simply answered and Rose felt the smile slip of her face, as the Doctor tried to hide his disappointment behind a quick: "Okay."  
"No really, I can't. Everything we did today. Do you live your life like that?"  
"Not all the time.", the Doctor answered and Rose raised an eyebrow at him.  
"I think you do... and I couldn't.", Donna explained. Had Rose really misjudged her so much. She could have sworn, that this was perfect for Donna. And perfect for them. They needed someone like her, someone brand new.  
"But you've seen it out there: It's beautiful.", the Doctor told her, obviously not understanding, how anyone could turn this opportunity down.  
"And it's terrible. The whole place was flooded and burning and they were dying and you stood there like... I don't know... a stranger. And then you made it snow! I mean, you scare me to death!"  
Rose stared at her in horror, then at the Doctor, who looked deeply wounded behind his calm exterior. What the hell had happened, while she was unconscious?!  
He took his hand and smiled up at him, when he turned around to look at her. It didn't matter. Whatever happened, she would never be afraid of him and right now she needed him to know that. Rose felt anger rise inside of her. If Donna didn't want to come, that was her choice, but who was she, to make the Doctor, who had just saved her and countless others, feel bad about himself? Didn't he carry enough guilt already?  
She turned around to look at Donna, who recoiled a little, when she saw the fury in her eyes.  
"Maybe he needs you more than you realize.", Donna simply told her, "Tell you what we will do, though: Christmas Dinner. Oh, come on."  
"I don't do that sort of thing.", the Doctor said, while his body already arched back inside the TARDIS. He was itchy now. Needed to get away. She had turned him down, Rose knew he wouldn't want to stay now. And if she was honest: neither did she.  
"Never? You might as well, Mum always cooks enough for twenty.", Donna tried to convince them, but Rose didn't think she could take it right now. Christmas without her Mum... Christmas with someone else's Mum.  
"I don't think so, Donna. We've got somewhere to be.", she told Donna, barely holding back the tears, that threatened to fall.  
Donna seemed to realize, that it was hopeless and smiled at the two of them: "Am I ever gonna see you again?"  
"If we're lucky.", the Doctor told her, a trace of his normal self back in his voice.  
"Take care then... of each other.", she answered.  
"Oh, we will. We always so.", Rose smiled at her and before he had made that decision consciously, she hugged Donna tightly, who whispered in her ear: "Take good care of him. I think he needs someone to stop him. Sometimes."  
Rose let go and looked at Donna. Her first instinct had been to get angry again, but then she remembered all her travels with the Doctor. And maybe... just maybe Donna was right.  
"I will.", she turned back to stand next to the Doctor, who now stood inside the TARDIS, ready to close the door.  
"Good luck ten, Donna. And... just be magnificent.", he told her, gave a last wave and closed the door.  
"Right!", he said, smiling at Rose,while he maneuvered the TARDIS into the Vortex "First the med bay... where to then?"  
"Doctor.", Rose started slowly, "Can we... Could we... Maybe..."  
"What?", he looked at her with wide, trusting eyes.  
"Could we go back to the estate? I... well... I'd like to get the stuff from the flat. Don't won't someone else to have it, you know? All my Mum's and Dad's stuff... it doesn't feel right."  
"Of course we can. We'll find a good room for them here, okay?", he said, hugging her again.  
"Yeah, that'd be nice."


	3. One step forward

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go:) Regular updates, just as promised

Chapter 3  
One step forward

Rose Tyler was bored out of her mind.  
Let's go investigate, he'd said.  
Let's check in, he'd said.  
It will be the perfect opportunity.  
Investigate my ass, thought Rose angrily, as she lay in her hospital bed with no sign of the Doctor.  
He was doing all the investigating, while she had to lay here and do absolutely nothing. Except for faking some stupid symptoms. Great, she thought, it's like being back in school, trying to convince Mum that I'm sick.  
Her less than nice thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of her doctor, Mr Stoker, and what seemed to be his medical students.  
"A very good morning to you, Mrs Tyler. How are you feeling this morning? Rose Tyler. Admitted late last night with severe abdominal pains." he explained with a friendly smile towards her. For a split second Rose feared she really looked like a Mrs already... was she ageing this fast?! Would people start calling her "Mam" soon?" Then she remembered the Doctor and that he'd accompanied her last night. And pretended to be her husband so he could stay with her. Of course, she sight in relief, they thought she was married to the Doctor.  
The students seemed to take her sigh as a sign, that she wasn't feeling any better, at all.  
"Well... Still not very good. ", she answered Mr Stoker's question noncommittally.  
"Let's see then... Jones, what do you think?"  
A dark skinned pretty young woman stepped forward and listened to Rose's heartbeat for a moment, before looking up at her superior with a somewhat helpless expression.  
Rose really pitied her. How was she supposed to find anything, when Rose was (as the Doctor put it so nicely) healthy as a horse?  
"I don't know... stomach cramps?", Jones asked hopefully.  
"That's a symptom, not a diagnoses.", Doctor Stoker reprimanded her. Annoyance evident in his face, "And you rather failed basic procedure, when you didn't consult the patient's chart first." He picked it up, just to let it fall, when he got an electric shock.  
"That happened to me this morning!", exclaimed Jones and her fellow students chimed in, all having experienced the same thing. Rose listened intently. She'd tell the Doctor about this later, maybe it would help him somehow. Apparently that was all the help she was allowed to give.  
"Not to worry, it's just static electricity. We have a thunderstorm moving in, which is a form of static electricity. Proven by? Anyone?", Mr Stoker looked at his students with a look of utter disappointment on his face.  
"Benjamin Franklin.", another voice sounded happily, as the Doctor appeared next to Rose and squeezed her arm in greeting.  
"Correct.", Mr Stoker said and looked at the Doctor, obviously trying to measure him up.  
"Ah, my mate Ben. That was a day and a half. Fist I got soaked...", and before the Doctor could continue his babbling and get them both in trouble, Rose pinched him in his hand. Hard. The Doctor winced and made an involuntary step back, while Dr. Stoker and the students looked at him, as if they weren't sure he was joking or if he was seriously ill. Jones, Rose noted with surprise, was actually starring at the Doctor's tie. Huh, what was that about?  
"Anyway...", Dr. Stoker continued, "Someone will be with you shortly, Mrs Tyler."  
"Thank you.", Rose smiled up at him, still holding the Doctor's hand in a vicelike grip, which looked incredibly awkward since he was now standing as far away from her, as possible.  
Rose waited until they were all out of sight before she released the Doctor's hand, who held it to his chest protectively and whined: "What did you do that for?!"  
"Oh honestly, Doctor, you can't tell them stuff like that! They already think I'm weird, because they can't find anything. If you start acting like a lunatic, they'll throw us out... although... I'm bored. So please do."  
"They wouldn't think that.", the Doctor huffed, "People think I'm adorable."  
"Yes, sure.", Rose answered, rolling her eyes mockingly, but she couldn't help smiling when he looked at her like a lost puppy.  
"Did you find anything? At all?"  
"Oh yes, it's great! They even have a little shop down there... Oh, you know how I love those!", he grinned enthusiastically. But that grin faded pretty quickly, when he realized that Rose didn't seem to share said enthusiasm.  
"A shop. You found a shop."  
"Weeellll, yes. And I brought you something to read.", he continued carefully, producing a magazine out of one of his pockets, "Since I figured you might be bored."  
"Might?", she said, but smiled at him nonetheless, "If you haven't found anything by now, do you think you will? Because I'm pretty sure they'll kick me out soon... or decide it's a case for psychiatric."  
"Maybe you staying here wasn't such a good plan. At least we know now, that whatever is causing these plasma coils is not inside the hospital. Why don't you get dressed, we'll sneak out and try to find out what's going on another way?", he offered. Rose was pretty sure, that he'd have loved to investigate further, but knew very well, that she would NOT be happy about staying any longer inside a hospital bed. She decided to bodily throw the Doctor behind the thin curtain that separated her from the rest of the patients, so she could actually get dressed. She was just about to put her shoes on, when the world gave a frightening lurch and all hell broke lose. People were screaming, equipment flaying and sparking and Rose's bed fell over, almost crushing her underneath. Just as soon as it had started, it stopped. Silence fell over patients and personnel alike. Before everyone seemed to start screaming at once. Rose tried to untangle herself from her thin blanket and the stupid curtain her bed had torn down, when the Doctor came to her aid. He pulled her to her feet and asked her worriedly: "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"  
"Urgh, why does something like this happen to me all the time now?", Rose answered and looked around, trying to find out what the hell had happened.  
"What do you mean "now"? You were always quite... jeopardy friendly.", the Doctor reminded her and seeing that she wasn't hurt, pulled her after him, when between all the shouting going on, they heard another voice, calm and clear: "They are not exactly airtight. If the air was gonna be sucked out, it would have happened straight away."  
The Doctor smiled at Rose as if to say: "Oh look, intelligent life forms" before he grabbed her hand and tuned towards the voice: "Excellent point. Brilliant even. What's your name again?"  
"Martha.", she answered, watching both the Doctor and Rose, carefully.  
"Jones, right?", Rose chimed in, smiling at her young doctor. Before taking a look outside. The Doctor might have realized what was going on, but he hadn't had the time yet. Was that the moon?! Before she could ask the Doctor about it, he continued talking to Martha: "Right then, Martha Jones. Question is: How are we still breathing?"  
"We can't be.", the woman next to them panicked.  
"We are. So stop wasting my time.", the Doctor snapped at her and Rose muttered a quick "Rude.", under her breath, before she lay an arm around the distressed woman and looked outside as well. The moon, definitely the moon. They had been here before, of course. But inside the protection of the TARDIS. The TARDIS. That was currently parked on a side-walk on earth. Rose groaned as that realization hit her.  
"Martha, is there a balcony or veranda on this floor?", the Doctor asked, looking out of the window intently.  
"By the patients lounge, yeah.", Martha answered. Seemingly unsure what to do next.  
"Can you show us where?", he continued.  
"Sure."  
"We might die.", the Doctor simply told her.  
"We might not."  
Rose felt a smile creep up her face, when she heard that answer. Martha had obviously passed the Doctor's test, which he acknowledge with a quick "Good." but at the same time felt a little nervous about the whole thing. Martha was young, beautiful and smart and... Rose cursed herself. She wasn't normally the jealous type and the Doctor didn't give her any reason to. Except for Reinette, a little, mean voice sounded in the back of her head. Shut it, she told that voice. She didn't have the right to be jealous. The Doctor and she were just friends. Nothing else. Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Maybe one day you'll actually believe it. Shut up!  
"Come on.", said the Doctor and pointed at the woman Rose was still trying to comfort, "Not her. She'd hold us up." Before Rose could protest, he took her hand again and she had to hurry to keep up with him, Martha falling into pace next to her, making their way through a mass of devastated people, who had stopped screaming and were now simply sitting around, doing nothing.  
When they reached the patients lounge, the Doctor gave Rose an excited grin and opened the door, leading them outside.  
Rose looked at the earth in wonder- No matter how often they did something like this, it was still amazing. But the best thing, Rose realized, was Martha's absolutely joyful expression and the Doctor's wide grin. That's why he did it, Rose knew, taking people along. It's like giving a present, she thought, the best thing is the happiness on the faces of the others.  
"We've got air... how does that work?"  
"Just be glad it does.", the Doctor answered, looking down at the surface of the moon.  
The reality of the situation finally seemed to hit Martha: "I've got a party tonight. My brother's 21st. My mother's gonna be really... really..."  
"You okay?", the Doctor asked her, unable to hid the tiniest glimmer of disappointment in his voice. He probably thought Martha would break down now, but Rose wasn't so sure about that.  
"You wanna go back in?", she asked Martha carefully, already anticipating the answer.  
"No way.", Martha told her firmly, not taking her eyes of the moon for a second, "We could day any minute, but... it's beautiful! I mean, how many people wanna go to the moon?! And here we are."  
"Standing in the earth light."  
"What do you think happened?", Martha suddenly asked, looking between Rose and the Doctor, who gazed at each other for a split second, before Rose nodded and the Doctor asked: " What do you think?"  
"Extra-terrestrial, it's gotta be. I don't know. A few years ago it would have sounded mad, but these days? That spaceship crashing into Big Ben, Christmas… those Cybermen thingies… I had a Cousin, Adeola, she worked at Canary Wharf. Never came home.", Martha's voice drifted off, her eyes fixed onto the distant earth.  
The Doctor looked at her, as if that name meant something to him, but Rose just felt sorry for the young woman in front of her, who probably didn't even know what had really been going on that day and what had happened to her cousin.  
"We were there… in the battle.", the Doctor told Martha quietly and squeezed Rose's hand reassuringly, but she just smiled up at him. It was okay, she thought, her mother was where she really wanted to be: with Pete. Of course it was hard to never see her again, but it had gotten easier once they had cleared out the flat and moved everything into a large room inside the TARDIS. She went there sometimes, when she couldn't sleep, but didn't want to worry the Doctor.  
"I promise you, Mr and Mrs Tyler, we will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon, we can travel back. There's got to be a way.", Martha tried to reassure her two new-found companions. Probably as much as herself.  
"It's not Mr Tyler, that's not my real name", the Doctor answered and Rose prepared for the usual dance around his name.  
"Who are you, then?", Martha asked, looking between the Doctor and Rose.  
"I'm the Doctor.", he stated simply and Rose rolled her eyes. Here we go, she thought.  
"Me too, if I can pass my exams. What is it then, Doctor Tyler?"  
"Just the Doctor."  
"What, people call you the Doctor?"  
"Yeah."  
"Well, what do the call you then?", she switched her full intention to Rose, "The Teacher? The Professor? Or something completely different, like… the Wolf?"  
Rose starred at Martha and couldn't help but notice how the Doctor flinched violently and looked downright panicked for a moment.  
Rose was saved from answering by three massive spaceships passing over their heads, landing nearby and long lines of orderly marching creatures exciting. They walked towards the hospital, passing through some sort of force field on their way in.  
Martha looked at the new arrivals open-mouthed: "That's aliens. Real, proper aliens."  
"Judoon.", the Doctor confirmed, his eyes dark with worry, he grabbed Rose's hand to run back inside, when a thought occurred to her and she held him back: "Doctor, they passed through some sort of force field, right?"  
""Yes.", was his only reply, making it obvious that his brain had long since arrived and the conclusion Rose was only just getting to.  
"But… but if it's like a bubble keeping the air in…", Martha started and then looked at them in horror.  
"We're going to suffocate."  
The trio arrived on a gallery above the reception in time to see the Judoon starting to catalogue the panicked people below them.  
"Oh look, Rose. That's where I got your magazine.", the Doctor pointed out, a boyish smile on his face. Just when Rose opened her mouth to fondly remind him of the far more important problem at hand, Martha took over: "Never mind that. What are Judoon?"  
"They're like police. Well, police for hire. They're more like interplanetary thugs."  
"And why did they bring us to the moon? "  
"Neutral territory. According to galactic law, they've got no jurisdiction over the Earth, so they isolated us. That rain, lightning? That was them, using an H2O scoop.", he explained, still starring at the scene below without blinking.  
"What are you on about, galactic law? Where do you get that stuff from?", Martha asked, he disbelieving smile on her face, looking at Rose for confirmation, who just gave her a pitying, comforting look. Or at least she hoped, that was what it looked like. Martha seemed to decide to humour the Doctor's apparent madness and continued: "If they're police, are we under arrest? Are we trespassing on the moon or something?"  
Rose snored and the Doctor smiled at her warmly, before saying: "No, but I like the way you think." Rose immediately stopped grinning, jealousy was raising its ugly head again. When did she become such an insecure person? He didn't even hear the Doctor continuing his explanation, Martha's disbelieving " Stop looking at me like that!", brought her back to the present.  
"Well, come on then.", the Doctor laughed and ran of, both women closely following behind until they reached office space containing several computer. Martha went to stand next to the door, while Rose and the Doctor went to work. The Doctor using his omnipresent sonic screwdriver, whereas Rose took the traditional road, simply turning one on.  
"They've reached third floor.", Martha warned them, looking over Rose's shoulder, who tried to figure out why nothing seemed to work, "What's that thing he's using?", she asked Rose and nodded towards the Doctor. Rose didn't even look up before she mumbled "Sonic screwdriver." Oh how she wished Mickey were here, he always knew what to do with those blasted things.  
"Well, if you're not going to answer me properly.", Martha snapped at her. Rose gave up on getting that computer to work and looked at Martha, "No really, I know it sounds stupid. But it's a screwdriver. And it's sonic. Apparently he was bored and had a lot of cupboards to put on."  
"What do you have then, a laser spanner?"  
"No, I don't.", Rose answered briefly. She saw Martha flinch and immediately felt bad about it. It wasn't Martha's fault, that Rose felt so terribly possessive lately. Or that she felt so threatened by Martha.  
6silence between the two women, ruffling his hair in frustration and making him look, as if he got struck by lightning, "Oh, this computer! The Judoon must have locked it down. Judoon platoon upon the moon. Because Rose and I, we were just travelling past, really. Went to get some chips, because she loves those, Rose does. And we weren't looking for trouble, honestly, just some quiet time, but I noticed these plasma coils around the hospital, that lightning that's a plasma coil. Been building up for days now, so we checked in. Rose had to become the patient, of course. Two hearts me, would have been suspicious. And I could investigate, while Rose…"  
"Lay bored in a bed.", Rose finally interrupted his rambling, giving Martha time to process it all. She looked positively dumbstruck, Rose noted a little bit of glee.  
"But what are they looking for anyway?", Rose continued, when the Doctor only looked at her guiltily.  
"Something that looks human, but isn't."  
"Like you, apparently.", Martha stated and examined him carefully. Oh, Rose thought sadly, I missed the "I'm an alien"-discussion.  
"Like me. But not me.", the Doctor hurried to assure her.  
"Haven't they got a photo?", Martha frowned.  
"Well, might be a shape-changer.", the Doctor dismissed her idea-  
"What'll happen when they find whoever they're looking for?", Rose asked wearily, desperately hoping that her gut feeling was wrong.  
"Depends. They might find the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive. They'd sentence it to execution."  
Great, thought Rose, why can't anything ever be easy?  
"All of us?", came Martha's shocked reply.  
"Oh yes, if we can't find this thing first. Oh! You see, they're thick! Judoon are thick! They are completely thick!", the Doctor shouted angrily, when Rose interrupted him with a sweet smile, saying :" If you go up to one of them and tell him he's Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania. And so is his dad, I'll show you if my Mum's slap is heritable. "  
Martha made a strange strangled sound as the Doctor started at Rose in disbelieve, not dignifying her interruption with an answer, instead simply continuing: "They wiped the records." His face never wavering from Rose's.  
"What exactly are we looking for?", asked Martha carefully, obviously unsure of what was going on between the other two.  
"I don't know.", the Doctor answered, actually managing to look at Martha now, "Say, any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms. Maybe there's a back-up."  
"Just keep working. I'll go ask Mr Stoker. He might now.", and with that Martha practically bolted, eager to get away from the tense atmosphere inside the office.  
The Doctor quietly went back to work, leaving Rose to mend the door. He worked in silence for a moment, before he asked quietly: "Are you al-right?"  
"Of course I am.", Rose snapped back. Jealousy and insecurity still raging inside her.  
"You seem to be somewhat… angry at me today. What did I do?"  
"Nothing. Maybe that's the problem.", she mumbled.  
"I'll make sure you're not interrupted.", she continued, standing at the door and refusing to look at the Doctor, who stared at her for a moment, before he sighed loudly and turned back to work.  
Rose blinked a couple of times, looking outside. She knew, she wasn't fair to the Doctor. She had always been content with their relationship. Never pushed him into anything. She knew very well, why they remained friends, but she couldn't help it now. He was all she had left, her home was with him. And just being with him was enough, always would be. Still, she wasn't proud of it, but she felt threatened by Martha, who was beautiful… smart… educated… Rose sighed loudly. She really didn't like the person she was turning into right now.  
"Yes! I've restored the back-up!", the Doctor shouted behind her, making her jump in surprise, as he grabbed her hand and pulled her along, making Rose smile involuntarily. No matter how she had treated him, he still took her hand. Not letting go.  
A moment later they bodily crashed into Martha, the Doctor proudly telling her: I've restored the back-up."  
"I've found her!", Martha panicked, looking behind her.  
"What?!", asked the Doctor, when a huge, leather-clad person crashed through the door behind her. Instinctively Rose took Martha's hand at the same time, as the Doctor gleefully shouted "Run!", pulling both women along.  
Oh, how she loved this! Adrenaline rushed through her. The Doctor made a soft sound over the patter of their feet. It almost sounded like a laugh.  
He dragged them both towards radiology, where he soniced the door open and both women got behind the radiation screen.  
"What are you doing?!", screamed Rose, when the Doctor didn't stay with them.  
"When I say now, press the button!", he instructed Martha.  
"I don't know which one!", Martha replied frantically, while Rose tried to follow the Doctor.  
"Then find out! No, Rose, you have to stay down."  
"You look as if you are going to do something stupid-", she replied desperately, as the Doctor started to sonic the x-ray machine. Outside the room someone banged against the door, as the Doctor grinned manically at Rose and shouted:" Me? Never!"  
The motorcycle-dude crashed through the door at the same time, as the Doctor yelled:" Now!" and both Rose and Martha hid behind console. Rose felt as if all air was being knocked out of her. Again. Something was pressing on her chest, she couldn't breathe, her hands started to shake violently. Oh God no, she thought, please not again!  
Beside her, Rose didn't even notice, when Martha looked up to see the leather-clad figure fall face down. She turned the machine and Rose sprinted up to the Doctor, her eyes wondering worriedly, hungrily over his face.  
"What did you do?", Martha asked in wonder. It took the Doctor a moment to answer, his brown eyes scanning Rose's face, taking in her still violently shaking hands intently.  
"I increased the radiation by five thousand percent. Killed him dead."  
"But isn't that going to kill you?", Martha's voice rose slightly in the end, excitement and lack of oxygen making her breathe heavily.  
"Nah, it's only roentgen radiation. We used to play with roentgen bricks in the nursery.", he assured them and squeezed Rose' hand comfortingly, "I've absorbed it all. All I need to do now is expel it. If I concentrate I can shake the radiation out of my body and into one spot. It's in my left shoe. Here we go. Easy does it. Out. Out. Out. Ah, itches, itches, itches!"  
Rose watched him with fond amusement, as he hopped around like a maniac, shaking his left leg violently, before he pulls his shoe off and throws it into a near-by bin.  
"You're completely mad.", stated Martha at the same time, as Rose said: "Oh no, your shoes… I loved those shoes."  
"Well, they did a lot of running. Time for new ones.", he answered threw the other shoe away as well, "There. Barefoot on the moon."  
"Anyway. What is that thing? And where is it from, the planet Zovirax?"  
"Nah," answered the Doctor, kneeling down beside the still form, "It's just a Slab. They're called Slab. Basic slave drones. See?", and he patted the Slab on his leg to prove his point, "Solid leather, all the way through. Someone has got one hell of a fetish."  
"Oh, I don't know, there was a time, when you were quite fond of leather yourself." , Rose interrupted, a cheeky grin on her face. She still felt shaken to the core, but the Doctor kept giving her odd looks and she didn't want him to know just how scared she was of what was happening to her.  
Martha just blinked twice, before she apparently decided not to ask, and said: "But it was that woman, Miss Finnegan. It was working for her, just like a servant." But the Doctor wasn't paying attention anymore, he had gone to retrieve his screwdriver, which was still stuck inside the x-ray machine. "My sonic screwdriver!", he exclaimed and stared at his faithful tool in disbelieve.  
"She was one of the patients, but…", continued Martha stubbornly. Rose had to supress a grin at the sight of two people, who were convinced the other should pay full attention to them.  
"Oh no, my sonic screwdriver."  
"She had a straw like some kind of vampire."  
"I love my sonic screwdriver!"  
"Doctor!", came Martha's disbelieving, frustrated reply, causing the Doctor to mumble a quick "Sorry" and throw the rest of his beloved tool behind him without a second glance.  
Rose looked at it sadly and while Martha and the Doctor figured out the mystery of Miss Finnegan, she went to the corner of the room and picked it up again. The screwdriver might be broken and useless, but it had served the Doctor well. It deserved better than this, she decided, and pocketed it.  
"Rose! What are you doing back there? We need to find her!", the Doctor called and held out his hand for her. They run through the corridors, until Rose saw a second Slab walking up to them. Roughly she pushed her two still oblivious companions behind a water dispenser.  
"That's the thing about Slabs. They always travel in pairs.", the Doctor whispered.  
"Like you.", Martha stated and two heads flipped in her direction.  
"What?", he asked innocently, a small smile on her face. "Well, you travel in pairs, don't you? Did you start travelling together before or after you became a couple?"  
"We're not…", Rose started the explanation she had given countless times before, but gets interrupted by the Doctor: "Humans! We're stuck on the moon running out of air with Judoon and a bloodsucking criminal. You're asking personal questions?"  
"Uhhh, sensitive.", Martha replied, winking at Rose, who couldn't help but smile at her, while they got back up, "I like that: Humans. I'm still not convinced you're an alien."  
Right on cue, a Judoon shone his light directly into the Doctor's face, proclaiming: "Non-Human."  
"Oh my God, you really are!"  
"And again.", breathed the Doctor, this time grabbing both women. And off they were, running again. The Judoon fired his weapon at them, only missing Rose by an inch or so, as they ran up the stairs, running past people lying on the floor, desperately gasping for air. Rose saw the terrified student from before handing out oxygen to some patients.  
Martha knelled down next to her colleague, worry written all over her features: "How much is there?"  
"Not enough for all these people. We're going to run out."  
"How are you feeling? Are you al-right?", the Doctor asked Martha, still not letting go of Rose, who leaned heavily against him for support.  
"I'm running on adrenaline. What about you, Rose?"  
"Oh, Rose is used to this.", the Doctor replied off-handily, but Rose could see the carefully veiled worry in his eyes. "Welcome to our world.", she told Martha, "What about the Judoon?"  
"Nah, great big lung reserves. It won't slow them down. Where's Mister Stoker's office?"  
"It's this way.", Martha told them and lead the way.  
"Are you sure you're okay?", the Doctor whispered into Rose's ear so Martha wouldn't hear him.  
She looked up at him in surprise: "Yeah, sure. Why?"  
"Before he could answer, they reached Mr Stoker's – empty- office. Not really empty, Rose realized a moment later. Mr Stoker was lying on the floor behind his desk, unnaturally white and obviously dead.  
"She's gone. She was here.", Martha told them quietly.  
"Drained him dry.", the Doctor answered sadly, letting go of Rose and going over to take a better look, "Every last drop. I was right: She's a plasmavore."  
"Why do they always decide to hide on earth?", Rose asked, sighing loudly. Poor Mr Stoker, classic case of wrong time, wrong place.  
"They don't. We're just here a lot.", he answered distractedly, "She's still not save. The Judoon could execute us all. Come on, you two."  
"Wait a minute.", Martha told them and kneeled down to close Mr Stoker's eyes.  
Outside the Doctor looked around frantically, messing his hair up even more than usual: "Think. Think. Think. If I were a plasmavore surrounded by police, what would I do? Ah! She's as clever as me. Almost."  
"Being modest again, are we?" Rose raised an eyebrow.  
Behind them people started screaming as the Judoon finally made it to their corridor.  
"Find the non-human. Execute.", the leader grunted, as the other moved out.  
"Right…", the Doctor looked at them both for a split second, before he turned to Rose: "Rose, Martha, stay here. I need time. You've got to hold them up."  
"How do we do that?", Martha asked, when Rose exclaimed: "Absolutely not. You're not going anywhere without me!"  
"I've got to, please, I need the time!", he told her and before she could protest again, he kissed her. Rose felt as if someone had knocked the wind out of her. Her brain seemed to lose every ability to function. And before she could fully comprehend what was happening, she could breathe again and the Doctor had run off.  
"Wow."  
Rose turned to run after the Doctor, when a Judoon grabbed her from behind, shining his light in her eyes and proclaiming: "Human. Wait. Non-human traits suspected. Non-human element confirmed. Authorise full scan. What are you? What are you?"  
Rose can't even get a response out, while Martha is shouting at the Judoon, telling them about Florence and trying to get them to listen. To no avail. Rose is pushed against a nearby wall, helpless. It only took a couple of minutes, precious time the Doctor definitely needed, but for Rose it felt like an eternity. What was he planning? How dangerous exactly was it? And had he really meant to kiss her or was it just a distraction? And… Oh God, what if he had been doing something stupid, like saying goodbye?!  
A moment later the Judoon painted a big, black cross on her hand and gave her a creditstick, which she pocketed automatically. Maybe she'd buy something nice for her M… she stopped that thought right there and followed Martha and the Judoon, hopefully towards the Doctor and this solution for all of this.  
The Judoon marched through a nearby door and effectively block both women from view, Rose trying desperately to get through, when she heard one say: "Confirmation: Deceased."  
Rose's blood ran cold, without thought to safety or anything else, she showed her way through the Judoon, when her gaze fell on the Doctor's still, white form lying on the ground.  
She can't even scream, no sound, no movement for what felt like forever, before she ran forward, falling on the floor next to him and desperately checking for a non-existent pulse.  
"No!", she screamed once, running her fingers, her hands frantically over his face, "No! Doctor, please! Don't do this to me!"  
Sobs tortured her shaking body, as he felt the now familiar feeling of drowning, suffocating rise up in her chest. He was gone. He'd left her. Left her all alone. No one left. Gone. Alone.  
She couldn't breathe, her vision went fuzzy until she could only see the Doctor's pale closed eyes. She choked out a last "No, please!", before everything went black.  
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Warm. Soft. Comfortable.  
Rose stretched slightly, her hands peeking out under her heavy, violet blanket.  
It took her a small, blissful moment, before she remembered what had happened. With a yelp Rose opened her eyes and stared directly into the Doctor's.  
"Oh my God! I… I thought you were dead!", she shrieked, throwing her arms around him and before he could even react, she kissed him.  
She was so relieved, so thankful, so incredibly happy that nothing, nothing mattered. Nothing but the Doctor and his lips on hers.  
Way too soon, be pulled away from her, holding her hands in a tight grip. She looked up at him, tears of happiness glittering in her eyes.  
"Don't."  
The immense feeling of joy making it hard for Rose to even breathe, vanished completely and without a single trace. "What?", she asked, hating how her voice sounded so desperate and broken.  
The Doctor got up from his place next to Rose's bed. Not even looking at her.  
"You kissed me.", she told him dumbly.  
"That was a genetic transfer!", he told her angrily, his hands buried deep inside his pockets. Eyes looking everywhere but at her.  
"A genetic transfer.", he echoed mutely.  
"I needed time."  
"So that's all it was then. You needed time."  
"Yes.", he replied, his eyes desperately wandering to the door, but Rose wouldn't, couldn't stop now. They had danced around this for months, years even, and she was so tired. She just wanted something, anything simple right then.  
"Then why kiss me. Not Martha?"  
His gaze shot up then, looking at her with furrowed brows: "Do you want me to kiss Martha?", he asked her unbelievingly.  
"No!", she shouted back, frustration and anger driving hot tears into her eyes, "I want you to admit that it was a kiss, that it was YOU and not just a "genetic transfer"!"  
"And then what, mh?!", suddenly the Doctor was shouting as well, looking like a cornered animal, his hands clenched tightly.  
"I…", Rose stuttered at a loss for words. What did she really want and… what if he didn't feel the same? He wouldn't just leave her, right? Replace her. Throw her away. Involuntarily she looked at his feet. New shoes. Of Course. Briefly she wondered, if he had built a new screwdriver yet.  
"We… we talked about it. We can't. We just can't!", the Doctor told her, misinterpreting her silence.  
"Why?", she asked, suddenly feeling incredibly tired again, "Because I'm going to wither and die? And you'll have to live on?"  
"Yes.", came the silent, almost inaudibly answer and Rose was shocked to see tears in the Doctor's eyes as well.  
"I am never going to die of old age, Doctor.", she told him, "Look at us. Look at our lives! You almost died today. I could die tomorrow. Being together will not change that."  
"It's not the same! I can't. I can't. I won't.", and with that he turned around and fled.  
"Yeah", Rose told the empty room, "Run away. It's what you do best."  
She silently cried herself to sleep after that, desperately wishing for her mother or a friend to talk to, but she didn't have anybody. Except the Doctor.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized I forgot to put the chapters here... I just kept updating on another page. So here we go. I am just gonna throw them at all of you:)

Chapter 4

Two steps back

 

Rose woke a couple of hours later, not feeling refreshed in the slightest. But the TARDIS was obviously moving, making it impossible to sleep.  
"Great.", grumbled Rose, when the TARDIS landed somewhere and she got out of bed. She felt like an idiot. What had she been thinking, pushing the Doctor like that?  
Maybe it would be awkward now. Maybe, she thought terrified, maybe he wouldn't want her on board anymore.  
She had just finished dressing, when the TARDIS shook again, nearly throwing Rose of her feet. What was the Doctor doing?!  
Carefully she made her way outside. Should she go and ask what was going on?  
Rose knew she was being a coward, but she didn't think she could face him like that. Not without at least some breakfast. And tea. Tea would be good right about now, she thought.  
She had just managed to brew some tea, when the TARDIS moved for the third time. Actually worried by the Doctor's weird behaviour now, she grabbed the two cups of tea and went to the console room. Just before she entered, the TARDIS moved for a fourth time, making Rose spill her precious tea.  
"Seriously, Doctor! What are you doing? I just tried to bring you…", Rose stopped when she saw that the Doctor was not alone. Martha was standing right next to him, excitement written all over her face. Rose dropped the now empty cups in shock, they shattered into dozens of tiny parts, but Rose didn't even notice. Martha. He had brought Martha along. He was going to throw her out. The Doctor had already replaced her. With beautiful, smart Martha.  
"Hey, Rose.", Martha smiled at her warmly, "The Doctor won't tell me what's outside. He says I just have to take a look."  
Rose stared at her, unmoving. Martha's smile wavered, when Rose didn't answer and she turned her gaze to the Doctor, who wasn't looking at either of them.  
"Right then, Martha Jones. Outside these doors. Brand new world.", the Doctor told her turning around to face the TARDIS-door. Martha raised an eyebrow and looked back at Rose again, who as starring at the Doctor with an odd mix of panic, fear and anger.  
"Yeah, Martha, brave new world.", Rose told her quietly, her voice almost breaking.  
Martha looked at Rose one last time, before almost running out of the door. The Doctor followed closely, still not looking at Rose, who starred after them for a moment, before she decided to take a look as well.  
"What have butterflies ever done to you?", Rose heard the Doctor's startled voice.  
"What if… I don't know. What if I kill my grandfather?", came Martha's desperate answer.  
Ah, thought Rose, smiling softly, naturally Martha was a thinker. Someone who needed everything explained.  
"Are you planning to?", the Doctor asked her, eyes narrowing in suspicion.  
Rose took pity on Martha and decided to take matters into her own hand. She would not be a jealous, petty person. She would not run around moping. And she would not be afraid. The Doctor wouldn't just leave her. She was sure of it.  
Martha opened her mouth to answer the Doctor's rather stupid question, but stopped when Rose ran up and linked arms with her. "Don't bother.", she told Martha cheekily, "You can't argue with him, if he's like that."  
"Is he often difficult on purpose?", Martha asked and gave Rose a thankful smile.  
"Not as much as he used to be.", Rose replied, "But be careful, he still likes to insult species when he's stressed."  
"Anyhow. Back to the point.", the Doctor interrupted them, obviously not happy with the way his two companions where talking about him.  
"Right.", Martha said, looking around in wonder, "So this is London then?"  
"I think so, yes. Right about 1599."  
"Oh, but hold on. Am I all right? I'm not going to get carted off as a slave, am I?", Martha asked and to Rose's big surprise she was looking at her and not the Doctor.  
"No, you won't.", Rose assured her and patted her arm lightly and pulled her along.  
"Why would they do that?", the Doctor asked, trailing behind them. Rose looked over to see Martha rolling her eyes at the Doctor's question.  
Interesting, Rose thought, maybe having Martha on board would be far better, than she had feared. The Doctor grumbled something incomprehensible behind them and Rose was sure, that he had not expected the two women to team up on him like that.  
When they walked past a preacher, telling them "And the world will be consumed by flame!", Rose giggled openly.  
"What?", Martha asked, smiling as well.  
"Global warming.", Rose told her and they both started to laugh.  
Apparently the Doctor decided to stop sulking a moment later, for he decided to catch up with them and said: "Are you enjoying yourselves?"  
"Yes, very much.", Martha told him, grinning broadly, "This is amazing."  
"If it's entertainment you want, I've got just the thing for you.", and with that, the Doctor ran ahead, more or less forcing the two linked women to follow, albeit more slowly .  
"Oh, yes, the Globe Theatre! Brand new. Just opened. Through, strictly speaking, it's not a globe, it's a tetradecagon. Fourteen sides. Containing the man himself.", the Doctor told them, proudly puffing his chest out.  
"Whoa, you don't mean. Is Shakespeare in there? ", Martha asked, starring at the building in wonder and badly veiled excitement.  
"Oh yes. What do you think? Want to take a look?"  
"Of course!", Martha pulled at Rose, making the other woman smile kindly. This, Rose thought, this is why I love my life.  
"When you get home, you can tell everyone you're met Shakespeare.", the Doctor told her happily, striving along next to them.  
"Then I could get sectioned."  
They could hardly believe their luck, when they found out that the next performance would start shortly. And after the Doctor had presented some ominous golden coins from somewhere inside his pockets, the trio found three seats and waited for the play to start.  
Martha and the Doctor, Rose noted, were totally enthralled by the play and although Rose really enjoyed it, she was never much of a Shakespeare fan, probably she got the "A Rose by any other name" line one too many times.  
"That's amazing! Just amazing. It's worth putting up with the smell. And those are men dressed as women, yeah?", the play had just finished and everyone was applauding frantically.  
"Yes, London never changes.", the Doctor answered Martha's question, making Rose smile a little. Martha was sitting between them, either not noticing that her two travel companions were rather awkward with each other or choosing not to comment on it. Her eyes were blazing with pure joy and she looked around constantly, trying to drink everything in at once.  
"Where's Shakespeare? I want to see Shakespeare. Author! Author!", she screamed, punching her fist into the air," Do people shout that? Do they shout Author?"  
Other people around them started to shout as well and in a matter of seconds, almost everyone was demanding Shakespeare's presents on the stage.  
"Well, they do now. Apparently.", the Doctor answered, looking slightly taken aback.  
A moment later a man entered the stage. Looking, Rose thought drily, rather pleased with himself.  
"He's a bit different from his portraits.", Martha said astonished.  
"Not for the worse, though.", Rose laughed and elbowed Martha, who grinned as well. The Doctor on the other hand looked rather unimpressed.  
"Genius. He's a genius. The genius. The most human human there's ever been. Now we're going to hear him speak. Always he chooses the best words. New, beautiful, brilliant words.", the Doctor told them, leaning forward in his seat.  
"Ah, shut your big fat mouths!", Shakespeare hollered at the assembled crowd, effectively wiping the happy grin of the Doctor's face, "Ah, well.", he said, looking rather sad, whereas Rose couldn't help but laugh. "You said he was the most human human ever.", she told him in an attempt to comfort him, "And you've got to admit, that was pretty human."  
"You should just never meet your heroes.", Martha supported Rose, "They can never life up to it."  
"You've got excellent taste, I'll give you that.", Shakespeare continued boasting, then he spotted someone in the audience and exclaimed: "Oh, that's a wig."  
" I know what you're all saying. Loves Labour's Lost, that's a funny ending, isn't it? It just stops. Will the boys get the girls? Well, don't get your hose in a tangle, you'll find out soon. Yeah, yeah. All in good time. You don't rush a genius."  
"Oh look, he is just as modest as you are.", Rose told the Doctor with a dead serious expression, making him scowl at her and Martha burst out laughing again.  
"Travelling with you guys really is fun.", she told them and grinned happily.  
Rose was having so much fun with the Doctor's affronted face, that she almost missed Shakespeare's next words: "When? Tomorrow night. The premiere of my brand new play. A sequel, no less, and I call it Love's Labour's Won."  
The theatre explodes in shouts and clapping, but Rose only noticed the slightly panicked looks on the actors' faces.  
"Looks like they didn't get the memo."  
The Doctor looked at her with the odd expression on his face, he has come to know and fear over the time spend with him. Something wasn't right.  
"What is it?", she asked, when they followed the others outside.  
"Well, I'm no expert, but I've never heart of ´Love's Labour's Won`", Martha answered instead.  
"Exactly. The lost play. It doesn't exist, only in rumours. It's mentioned in lists of his plays but never ever turns up. And no one knows why."  
„Have you got a mini-disc or something? We can tape it. We can flog it. Sell it when we get home and make a mint.", Rose stopped dead in her tracks, when Martha proposed this. She turned around and looked at her new friend with raised eyebrows. The Doctor simply stated: "No."  
"That would be bad.", Martha answered slowly, insecurely looking at Rose.  
"A brain-door-moment, I like to call it.", Rose told her.  
"A what?", Martha asked in astonishment.  
"I'll tell you later. Maybe in the kitchen with a nice cuppa."  
"Oooookay.", Martha continued slowly, "But how come it vanished in the first place?", she turned to the Doctor, who had been uncharacteristingly up till then.  
" Well, I was just going to give you a quick little trip in the Tardis, but I suppose we could stay a bit longer.", he told Martha, who smiled at him happily.  
Just a quick little trip, thought Rose, he did not invite her along? She was seriously confused now, but sadly not brave enough to ask what was going on.  
They made their way to the room Shakespeare is living in, sitting with two other man and obviously debating the impossibility of `Love's Labour's Won` being premiered the following day. The Doctor had his hands buried deep inside his pockets and Rose, who was so used to him constantly being by her side, had linked arms with Martha again, who had looked at her oddly for a moment and then followed her gaze to the Doctor.  
So Martha did understand, Rose thought with a hint of relief. Maybe Martha was what she had been hoping for last night. Someone to talk to, someone who wouldn't judge. Someone uncomplicated.  
In front of them the Doctor sauntered into Shakespeare's room the same way he always did: As if he owned the place.  
"Hello! Excuse me, not interrupting, am I? Mister Shakespeare, isn't it?"  
Shakespeare on the other hand didn't seem impress. Not in the slightest: "Oh, no. No, no, no. Who let you in? No autographs. No, you can't have yourself sketched with me. And please don't ask where I get my ideas from. Thanks for the interest. Now be a good boy and shove…", he stopped midsentence when he spotted the women following the Doctor inside. His gaze appraisingly scanning them both in a way, that made Rose think she should be offended.  
"Hey, nonny nonny. Sit right down here next to me.", he told them both, dismissing his two companions without a second glance.  
Rose, Martha and the Doctor sat down in front of the table, while the others left the room.  
"My sweet ladies.", Shakespeare told them, flirty smile on his face, "Such unusual clothes… So fitted." Rose blushed lightly, consciously pulling at the tight, pink shirt underneath her light jacket.  
"Er, verily, forsooth, egads.", Martha stutters, making Rose blush an even deeper red. Seriously, she thought, maybe we should have explained the translation circuit to Martha. The Doctor looked slightly embarrassed as well, telling Martha: "No, no, don't do that. Don't.", and standing up again to show Shakespeare his psychic paper, "Right. I'm Sir Doctor of TARDIS and these are my companions Dame Rose Tyler of the Powell Estate and Miss Martha Jones."  
"How come you get a title?", Martha whispered into Rose's ear, so nobody else would hear.  
"Got it from Queen Victoria.", Rose answered just as quietly. Martha's look was pretty priceless, she thought.  
"Interesting, that bit of paper. It's blank.", Shakespeare told them matter of factly.  
"Oh, that's very clever. That proves it. Absolute genius.", the Doctor exclaimed happily, obviously he had forgiven Shakespeare for his not so genius words before.  
Martha stood up to look at the psychic paper as well: "No, it says so. Doctor. Rose Tyler. Martha Jones. It says it right here."  
"And I say it's blank.", insisted Shakespeare stubbornly.  
"Psychic paper. Er, long story. Oh, I hate starting from scratch.", the Doctor told them, rubbing his cheek thoughtfully.  
"Psychic? Never heard that before and words are my trade. Who are you exactly? More's the point, who is your delicious blackamoor lady?"  
"What?", Martha asked and stared at Shakespeare in shock. Rose had to hide her giggle behind a, very obvious, cough.  
"Oops. Isn't that a word we use nowadays? An Ethiop girl? A swarth? A Queen of Afric?", continued Shakespeare, not in the least bit ashamed, while Martha gaped at him and Rose had a very hard time trying not to laugh out loud.  
"It's political correctness gone mad. Er, Martha's from a far-off land. Freedonia.", the Doctor explained, barely hiding a grin, either.  
Before Shakespeare can answer to that pretty much obvious lie, a tall man in expensive looking clothes entered, looking angry and very, very important.  
"Excuse me! Hold hard a moment. This is abominable behaviour. A new play with no warning? I demand to see a script, Mister Shakespeare. As Master of the Revels, every new script must be registered at my office and examined by me before it can be performed.", he thundered, completely ignoring Shakespeare's guests.  
Shakespeare leaned back in his seat. "Tomorrow morning, first thing, I'll send it round. ", he told the angry man graciously and Rose almost has to admire such arrogance.  
"I don't work to your schedule, you work to mine. The script, now!", the man hollered at Shakespeare.  
"I can't.", Shakespeare stated simply, reminding Rose a lot of the Doctor, maybe that was why she found herself grinning back widely, when he winked at her.  
"Then tomorrow's performance is cancelled! I'm returning to my office for a banning order. If it's the last thing I do, Love's Labour's Won will never be played. ", came the shout and as quickly as he had entered, he had left as well.  
"Well, that is one way of explaining it.", Rose remarked drily, looking at Shakespeare, who despite all his confidence before, looked a little lost.  
"Well then, mystery solved. That's Love's Labour's Won over and done with. Thought it might be something more, you know, more mysterious.", Martha said, clearly disappointed that it wasn't more complicated than that and Rose found herself smiling again. They hadn't done any running yet, she was sure it wasn't over. Just when she opened her mouth to tell Martha just that, somebody screamed down on the street, getting all four of them up and running outside. Rose haltered in her steps, when she saw the angry dude from before, staggering desperately and coughing up what appeared to be water.  
"What's wrong with him?", she screamed and ran over to hold him up.  
"Leave it to me, I'm a doctor.", the Doctor told no one in particular and pushed a crying woman aside, closely followed by Martha, how said: "So am I, near enough."  
"Got to get the heart going!", Martha shouted, when the man collapsed to the ground, "Come on, you gotta stay with me. Can you hear me? You're going to be alright."  
She bend down to perform CPR, when he coughed up more water and the Doctor gently pulled her away from the now dead man.  
"What the hell is that, Doctor?", asked Rose, still helplessly cradling his head.  
"I've never seen a death like it. His lungs are full of water. He drowned and then, I don't know, like a blow to the heart, an invisible blow.", the Doctor answered and for the first time that day, he actually looked at Rose. Took her hand and pulled her out from under the unfortunate man and helped her stand up, before he turned to the woman he had pushed aside before and told her: " Good mistress, this poor fellow has died from a sudden imbalance of the humours. A natural, if unfortunate demise. Call a constable and have him taken away."  
"Yes, sir.", the woman answered and left in a hurry. Rose's gaze following her all the way, trying to remember her name.  
"And why are you telling them that?", Martha asked, sounding almost accusing.  
"This lot still have got one foot in the Dark Ages, if I tell them the truth, they'll panic and think it was witchcraft."  
"Okay.", Martha challenged him, "What was it then?"  
"Witchcraft."  
Rose wished, she were more surprised, but in all honesty: she wasn't. She'd met ghosts before, werewolves… the Devil. She didn't think anything like that could really shock her again.  
They followed Shakespeare back to his room, where they sat in silence for a while, before the landlady entered again and told them: "I got you a room, Sir Doctor. But it's our only one. I fear you'll have to share."  
Rose nodded and smiled at her in recognition, while the other seemed to totally forget there manners and just went on in their conversation, as if nothing had happened.  
"Poor Lynley. So many strange events. Not least of all, this land of Freedonia, where a woman can be a doctor?", Shakespeare kept looking at Martha again, but this time there was not a note of flirting in his demeanour.  
"Where a woman can do what she likes.", Martha corrected him sharply and Rose sighed softly. Had she been this righteous and naïve, when she had first travelled with the Doctor? Sooner or later Martha would have to realize, that she couldn't always project here notions of right or wrong on everybody.  
Shakespeare seemed to think about that answer for a moment before he turned his attention to the Doctor again: "And you, Sir Doctor. How can a man so young have eyes so old?"  
The Doctor bristled slightly at this question. Rose knew how much he hated it, if people actually saw through his carefully crafted disguise of smiling and babbling.  
"I do a lot of reading.", he bit back.  
"A trite reply. Yes, that's what I'd do. And you?", his gaze wondered to Martha again, still not showing the slightest interest in Rose. She wasn't sure, if she should be glade… or hurt.  
"You look at him like you're surprised he exists. He's as much a puzzle to you as he is to me."  
Rose felt Martha cringe next to her, unsure what to answer. She just stood up and said: "I think we should say goodnight."  
"And then, of course, there is Lady Rose.", Shakespeare continued and the Doctor visibly stiffened, "You're not surprised at all, are you? You two are so busy not looking at each other, that you hardly see the obvious."  
The Doctor stood abruptly "Martha is right. We should retire.", he told Shakespeare brusquely. But Rose didn't get up. She remained seated and looked at Shakespeare searchingly. There was something in his eyes, she thought in surprise, as if he was asking her to stay. And in all fairness, she wasn't tired at all, she just had a full-night's sleep on board the TARDIS.  
"I'll keep Master Shakespeare company for a little while longer, if he doesn't mind. I'm not tired yet.", she said slowly, looking up to see the Doctor's hurt expression.  
"I'm sure he'll want to finish his play.", the Doctor told her through clenched teeth, looking at Shakespeare as if he was daring him to say differently.  
"No worries, Sir Doctor. I will escort your Lady back to your chamber shortly.", Shakespeare answered, his gaze not wavering from the Doctor's for a second. Rose was sure, she could smell the testosterone in the air. Maybe she really should go with the Doctor, she thought. But right then, the Doctor turned around without so much as a glance in her direction and slammed the door behind him.  
"I fear we have angered your husband.", Shakespeare told her lightly.  
"He's not my husband." ,Rose told him simply.  
"No, he's not. But he behaves like one. And so do you."  
"I don't know what you're talking about.", Rose answered tersely, but at the same time, she was fairly certain that Shakespeare really did know. He was far too perceptive for his own good.  
"Maybe not.", came the smiling reply, "But you look at him, as if you know completely who he is. And where your companion seems afraid, you appear unimpressed. Tell me, Lady Rose, is there something, anything, the Doctor could do to scare you away?"  
This time Rose had to smile as well. They are a lot alike, Shakespeare and the Doctor, she thought, even if the Doctor would not be happy about that comparison right about now.  
"No.", she told him softly, "And believe me, he's tried."  
Oh God, she thought then, am I just telling WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE about my relationship with the Doctor? Or the lack of one?  
"Well, sometimes, fair Lady, what a man needs to see a woman, is another man seeing her as well.", Shakespeare answered, winked at her and said: "I better complete my play now. And I'm sure the Doctor might come storming in at any second."  
"Nighty night, Shakespeare.", Rose told him, when she got up. And without consciously thinking about it, she leaned over the desk and gave him a thankful kiss on his cheek, before she left to find her two companions.  
Rose found there room just across the landing, knocked once and entered when she heard Martha's soft "Come in."  
Martha was lying on the right side of a small bed, half hidden under a blanket, the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.  
"I left the left side for you.", Martha yawned at her and patting the mattress.  
"No need, all yours.", Rose told her, looking through the room warily.  
"He said we wanted to go for a walk.", Martha told her, her eyes half closed now, "More like going to sulk, if you ask me."  
Rose didn't know how to answer that, so she decided to just keep quite instead. He'd come back soon, she told herself. He probably just went to do some investigating. But that thought didn't sit well with her. He had a tendency to get into trouble if he was on his own and…  
"Did you guys have a fight or something?", Martha interrupted her thoughts.  
"No! Well… yes, maybe.", Rose finally admitted and set down next to Martha on the bed, who shuffled a little to make more room.  
"You wanna tell me about it?", she asked and turned around to look at Rose.  
Rose thought about it. She liked Martha, she really did, but she didn't know her all that well and… would she really be able to understand what was going on between them?  
Would anyone?, she asked herself. Only yesterday she had wished to be able to talk to someone and here Martha was offering…  
"He kissed me.", she blurted out, and then shut her mouth in shock. She hadn't meant to say it.  
"I know. I saw.", Martha answered with a big and, Rose thought rather dirty, grin.  
"And then I thought he had died. I woke up and he was there and… and I kissed him."  
"That should make a bloke happy. Not have him sulk about in 1599 London.", Martha told her and set up again, obviously she had decided to give Rose her full attention.  
"You'd think, but… He doesn't feel about me that way.", Rose admitted sadly, not daring to look at Martha, "He just kissed me to hold of the Judoon. Genetic transfer, he said."  
"Bullshit!", Martha exclaimed loudly, making Rose jump a little.  
"Be that as it may, now he won't even look at me.", Rose continued, "He says he can't be with me, because he'll have to watch me die."  
"What?", Martha asked and looked up at her with fearful eyes, "you're not ill or anything, right?"  
"No, I'm just human. And he's not."  
Rose could clearly see when the realization hit Martha, that the Doctor didn't just have two hearts. That he really only looked human, but wasn't. Even if she had logically known it before.  
"How old is he anyway?", Martha asked her carefully.  
"Something over 900. You lose track in the TARDIS. I'm not even sure how old I am anymore."  
"O wow… that's… wow."  
"Yeah."  
"Still only a bloke.", Martha giggled and Rose had to smile as well. "Yeah", she said, "Superior timelord physiology my ass."  
Rose couldn't say how much time had passed, when she saw the door open and the Doctor enter. Martha was long since asleep and Rose just lay in the dark, letting her thoughts wander.  
"Found anything?", she breathed carefully, not wanting to wake Martha.  
"No.", was the Doctor's only reply. After that they were silent again.


	5. Any other man

Chapter 5

Any other man

 

"Rose?", came the Doctor's soft voice next to her ear. She'd been lying still for who knew how long, desperately trying not to think about the fact, that she seemed to have screwed up her friendship with the Doctor, when this one word shook her out of her dark musings.

"Doctor?", she breathed quietly, not wanting to disturb Martha, who was sleeping soundly.

"I…", he began carefully and stopped, seemingly unsure of what to say. Rose heart beat faster. Maybe he's ready to talk now, she thought, maybe he isn't angry anymore.

"I…", he started again, when a loud, terrified scream ripped through the night. In a matter of moments both Rose and the Doctor were on their feet, running towards the door. Martha's confused, sleepy voice shouting after them.

Entering Shakespeare's room, the Doctor immediately ran over to Dolly, the landlady, who had collapsed on the floor, whereas Rose ran over to the window, starring in shock after a woman on a broom. In front of a full-moon. Giggling.

"Bloody brilliant.", Rose thought and couldn't help the excitement. Shakespeare and witches. It's like Dickens and ghosts all over again. And look how that turned out.

"What happened?!", a slightly breathless, rumbled looking Martha asked, leaning in the doorframe. Oh right, Rose had almost forgotten they had left her in their room.

"Her heart gave out. She died of fright.", the Doctor told them gloomily.

"Apparently it was a witch.", Rose tried to be helpful, but the Doctor, Martha and the very shocked looking Shakespeare starred at her in disbelieve.

"No really, with a broom and all.", she told them, walking over to Shakespeare, who had be so kind to her before and leading him back to his chair.

The four of them sat together in silence, while a constable came to take the body away. And for a while longer. Martha curled up in her seat and started snoring softly again. It had been a long, long and exiting day for her, Rose knew. The Doctor was sitting right next to her, brow furrowed in concentration and obviously thinking hard, whereas she sat next to Shakespeare, smiling reassuringly at him from time to time. The sun had already risen, when he suddenly said: "Oh, sweet Dolly Bailey. She sat out three bouts of the plague in this place, when we all ran like rats. But what could have scared her so? She had such enormous spirit.

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light.", the Doctor answered, a sad look on his face. Martha stirred lightly. Opening one eye and realizing she'd fallen asleep, she sat up straight and looked around ashamed.

"Sorry.", she mumbled.

"Don't worry.", Rose told her, "Tough day. You'll need your strength anyway. There's probably going to be some running."

"It's interesting though," the Doctor told them, as if he'd just woken up as well, "Lynley drowned on dry land. Dolly died of fright. And they're both connected to you."

"Are you accusing me?!", Shakespeare asked in a hurt voice.

"Of course he's not.", Rose reassured him right away, when the Doctor just kept looking at him oddly, "He's just trying to figure out what's going on."

"And Rose said she saw a witch. And you've written about witches.", Martha continued, seemingly eager to pile up evidence.

"Have I? When?", Shakespeare asked, obviously confused.

"Not quite yet.", the Doctor tried to mutter at Martha, who looked pretty ashamed. But if Rose could hear him, she was sure so could Shakespeare. Still, he completely ignored that rather conspicuous remark and said: "Peter Street spoke of witches."

"Who's Peter Street?", Martha asked, leaning forward slightly.

"Our builder. He sketched the plans to the Globe.", Shakespeare told her gloomily.

The Doctor seemed to have an epiphany though, shouting: "The architect. Hold on. The architect! The Globe. Come on!" He jumped up excitedly and turned towards the door, Martha following much slower.

"Lady Rose?", Shakespeare asked her, offering his arm, "Will you walk with me?"

"Gladly, Mr Shakespeare.", she smiled up at him and took his arm. Passing the waiting Doctor in the hallway, who looked already much less excited than he had only moments before.

They made their way to the Globe together, Shakespeare pointing out different landmarks and buildings as they walked, Rose and Martha besides him and the Doctor trailed closely behind.

"The Doctor looks a little… green in the face.", Martha whispered into Rose's ear.

"What?", she asked surprised, "No, he's just in a bad mood, because he hasn't figured everything out yet."

Martha looked at her open-mouthed for a second, before shaking her head and saying: "You're both just as bad, as the other."

When they finally reached the Globe, Shakespeare ushered them inside.

"It's funny," Rose said, looking around in wonder, "Why is it, that a building always looks smaller once the people are gone?"

"Because a lot of people in one place represent an infinite number of possibilities.", Shakespeare answered. And winked at her. Again, "Anything could happen." Seriously, either he had something major in his eye or he was really exploring that idea about making the Doctor jealous.

As if on cue, the Doctor cleared his throat loudly and said: "The columns there, right? 14 sides. Why 14 sides?"

"Peter Street said it carried the sound well, that's all."

"14... why does this remind me of something?", the Doctor continued, spinning around himself to get a good look at everything.

"There are 14 lines to a sonnet.", Martha supplied.

"So there are. Everything is following the same design. 14 lines, 14 sides, 14 facets... Oh, my head!", the Doctor exclaimed, hitting his forehead in frustration, "Tetradecagon. Words. Letters. Numbers. Lines!"

"Maybe it's not about the Globe at all.", Rose interjected carefully, "Maybe it's about Will. This is like... his theatre and it was his landlady in his room, you know?"

The Doctor turned around to look at her: "Weren't you the one, who said it wasn't about him?"

"No. I said, it wasn't his fault. Doesn't mean anybody else couldn't have made it about him.", she answered angrily. Was he actually trying to be difficult?

The Doctor just watched her a moment longer, before he turned around again and said: "But the theatre has to be part of it. 14!" He was pacing manically back and forth now, "The theatre, it's magic. Stand on that stage, say the right words with the right emphasis at the right time... you can make man weep and cry of joy. Change them. Change their minds and the way they see the world. You should know that, Will. You do it all the time."

"So... like the TARDIS then? Small wooden box with all that power inside?"

"Oh. Oh, Martha Jones, I like you.", the Doctor answered, making Martha smile proudly.

"If you think it's all about the Globe, shouldn't we ask the architect for help? He should know why he designed it with 14 sides.", Rose looked at the others for confirmation.

"Of course!", the Doctor shouted, making the others jump in surprise, hitting his forehead in frustration, "Peter Street! We need to talk to him."

"You won't get an answer.", Will told them sadly, "He lost his mind, a month after finishing this place. Started rumbling about witches, said he heard voices. His mind was addled."

"Witches again.", Rose furrowed her brow, squeezing Will's hand in comfort, who was obviously distraught by his friends fate.

"Where is he now?", the Doctor asked and Rose cringed at his unexpectedly harsh tone.

"Bedlam.", Will answered softly and his expression send a shiver down Rose's spine. She had no idea what Bedlam was, but suddenly she wasn't too keen on finding out.

"What's Bedlam?", Martha asked, when it became clear, that Will wasn't going to continue. "Bethlem Hospital. The madhouse."

"Then this is where we're going. Come on!", and to Rose's utmost surprise the Doctor grabbed her hand and pulled her along, as he ran out of the theatre. "Hold up!", Martha shouted, but Rose didn't have time to turn around and find out, if the others were following them.

They had to slow down eventually, giving Martha , and unsurprisingly Will, time to catch up. But still, Rose realized happily, the Doctor was not letting go of her hand. On the contrary: When Will fell in step next to them the Doctor's hand tightened almost painfully.

"So, tell me of Freedonia, where women can be doctors, writers, actors."

"This country is ruled by a woman.", Martha interjected from the Doctor's other side.

"Ah, she is royal.", Will dismissed her quickly, "That's God's business. Though you are royal beauties."

"Woa, Nelly. I know for a fact, you've got a wife in the country."

"But Martha", Will whined, "This is Town."

Rose couldn't help it, she laughed out loud.

"What is so amusing about me?", Will asked, looking slightly hurt.

"You sounded just like the Doctor there, all whiny."

"I don't...", both men started simultaneously, causing Rose and Martha to laugh whole heartedly. And every time one of the sulking men tried to defend themselves, they only laughed harder.

Only when the finally reached Bedlem, did the the atmosphere of despair and human suffering destroy the mood pretty abruptly.

The Doctor flashed his psychic paper at the disgruntled guard, who became a whole lot more helpful, when he realized that he was apparently talking to Sir Doctor of TARDIS. Rose followed with rising horror, as they walked through the building and passed cells with screaming, dirty people cramped inside. She held onto the Doctor's arm for reassurance and noticed his "less than amused" expression.

The guard, or whatever he was supposed to be, left them standing in a corridor, submissively telling the Doctor: "Does my Lord Doctor wish some entertainment while he waits? I'd whip these madmen. They'll put on a good show for you."

The Doctor opened his mouth, presumingly to protest, when Rose beat him to it: "Excuse me?!"

The guard, obviously not expecting this kind of outburst from "Lady Rose", shrank back and looked at her in a curious mix of wonder and astonishment.

"I thought...", he started, but was quickly interrupted: "No, I really don't think you did."

"Well...", he trailed of, still looking slightly fearful, "Wait here, Milady, while I make him decent for you.", completely ignoring the others and all but running off.

"Didn't know you could be this scary.", Martha told her, but her smile vanished pretty quickly, when her gaze fell on the "patients" surrounding them, "So this is what you call a hospital? Where the patients are whipped to entertain the gentry? And you put your friend in here?!", Martha turned her attention towards Will and although Rose learned a long time ago not to judge, she couldn't help but be extremely disappointed in the man she had just minutes before compared to the Doctor. She was wrong, they were nothing, nothing alike!

"Oh, because it's all so different in Freedonia.", Will answered defensively.

"But you're clever. Do you honestly think this place is any good?", Martha insisted, struggling, Rose knew, to reconcile this side of him, with what she knew of him or at least was taught about him.

"I've been mad. Lost my mind. Fear. Fear of this place was, what set me right again.", Will told them, his arms crossed defiantly. And again Rose felt strongly reminded of the Man next to her... Or maybe a leather jacket was all that was missing.

"Mad in what way?", she asked carefully and let go of the Doctor to step closer to Will, who looked back at her with big, sad eyes.

"I lost my son.", he told her quietly, as if the words were too horrible to say out loud, "My only boy. The black death took him. I wasn't even there."

They stood in silence after that, nobody really sure what to say. Words, Rose thought helplessly, words would never be enough. She through her arms around Will's neck and kissed him softly on his cheek, hoping that he'd realize what she meant. He tensed for a second, than hugged her back and closed his eyes.

"It made me question everything. The futility of this fleeting existence. To be or not to be.", he murmured softly, slowly let go of Rose and plastered a big, and Rose was certain of it, fake smile on his face, "Oh, that's quite good."

"You should write it down.", the Doctor told him in a monotone, subdued way and Rose flinched visibly. She had almost forgotten the others.

"Mh, maybe not. A bit pretentious?"

The guard chose that exact moment to return, so they followed him to a large cell, where a small figure sat hunched over, looking at a stone wall.

The guard, who had obviously decided that Rose was in charge, said: "They can be dangerous, Milady. Don't know their own strength."

"I think it helps. If you don't whip them. Now get out!", the Doctor hissed at him, sending the guard almost running outside.

"Peter? Peter Street?", the Doctor asked carefully, crouching down next to the unresponsive man.

"He's the same as ever. You'll get nothing out of him."

"Peter?", the Doctor tried again, placing a hand on Peter Street's shoulder and raising his hand to look into his eyes. When he still didn't get the slightest sign of recognition, he put his fingers on Street's temples and told him: "Peter, I'm the Doctor. Go to the past. One year ago. Let your mind go back. Back to when everything was fine and shining. Everything that happened this past year since, happened to somebody else. It's just a story. A Winter's Tale. Let go. That's it. Just let go." And he lowered the man carefully down on his cot, before continuing: "Tell me the story, Peter. Tell me about the witches."

"What is he doing?", Martha asked in wonder, but Rose didn't bother answering. Martha would just have to see how amazing the Doctor really was all by herself.

"Witches spoke to Peter.", Peter Street started, his voice sounding monotone and dispassionate. A shiver ran Rose's spine. Of course she knew what the Doctor could do, but that didn't mean she didn't marvel over the fact, that he could look and act so human one minute, and so incredibly alien the next.

"In the night, they whispered, whispered. Got Peter to build the Globe to their design. Their design! Fourteen Walls. Fourteen. Always. When the work was done, the snapped poor Peter's wits."

"Where did Peter see the witches?", the Doctor asked, his voice heavy with compassion and pity, "Where in the city? Peter, tell me. You've got to tell me, where were they?"

"All Hallows Street.", came the quite reply.

"Seriously?", Martha breathed into Rose's ear, who just shrugged in response. Could this get any more cliché?

At that exact moment a witch appeared right in front of Peter and the Doctor, making them all jump in surprise.

The witch raised her finger, pointed threateningly at Peter and snarled: "Too many words. Just one touch of the hard."

"No!", the Doctor shouted desperately, but before he could react, the witch put her finger on Peter's chest and he collapsed to the floor. Rose felt white, hot anger blaze through her. How dare that B... witch to this, after she had already destroyed that poor man's mind?"

"Witch! I'm seeing a witch!", Will exclaimed next to her, reaching for her right hand and effectively holding her in place, when the witch cackled on: "Now, who would be next, hmmmm? Just one touch. Oh. Oh, I'll stop your frantic hearts. Poor, fragile mortals."

Martha, panicked by witnessing a murder right in front of her, ran to the cell door, shouting to be left out.

"That's not going to work.", the Doctor told her, without even taking of the witch, who was studying him just as intently, "The whole building is shouting that."

"Who will die first, hm?"

Rose tensed and closed her eyes, even before she heart the Doctor's "Well, if you're looking for volunteers..."

"Don't you dare!", she shouted. What was it with him sacrificing himself lately? Had he always been this bad or was it something else?

"Doctor, can you stop her?", Will asked worriedly, still firmly keeping Rose in place, who contemplated hitting him, hard, to run over to the Doctor.

"No mortal has power over me.", the witch gloated, taunting the Doctor.

"Oh," he told her, anger evident in every move, "but there's power in words. If I can find the right one... If I can just know you..."

"None on earth has knowledge of us.", the witch answered, but Rose was sure to see doubt flicker in her eyes.

"Then it's a good thing I'm here.", the Doctor smirked, "Now think, think, think. Humanoid female, uses shapes and words to channel energy... Ah! Fourteen! That's it! Fourteen! The fourteen stars of the Rexel planetary configuration!"

Panic flashed over the witches face and Rose couldn't help but smile proudly, when the Doctor pointed his finger at her and shouted triumphantly: " Creature, I name you Carrionite!"

The witch screamed and vanished in a bright flash of light.

"What did you do?", Martha asked, starring at him in shock.

"I named her.", came the smug reply, "The power of a name. That's old magic."

"But there is no such thing as magic.", Martha's voice was high with shock and Rose finally managed to get her hand out of Will's to walk over and offer Martha some comfort. The poor girl had just realized that the world was a whole lot bigger than she had believed all her life. Aliens? Okay. Time machine? Possible. But Magic?!

"Well, it's just a different sort of science. You lot, you chose mathematics. Giving the right string of numbers, the right equation, you can split the atoms. Carrionites use words instead."

"Use them for what?", Will asked, foreboding in his voice.

"The end of the world."

Rose was shocked to see how easy it was for them to leave after that. Nobody seemed to care much about the fact, that the man they'd been visiting had died, while they were there. Or at all. The guard just shrugged and led them outside, all the way staying as far away from Rose as possible. It would have been quite funny, Rose thought, if it weren't such a terrible occasion.

They hurried back to Will's room, this time not caring about their surroundings.

"Magic. Power in words.", Martha mumbled, as they took the stairs inside the inn.

"Well, that would explain a lot, wouldn't it?", Rose answered.

"What do you mean?", Martha asked, carefully looking around to make sure that the men couldn't hear her.

"For example, why the Doctor won't tell anyone his name. Names have power, right?", Rose told her, watching the Doctor's back enter Will's room.

"You don't know his name, either?", Martha starred at her in shock.

"Of course I don't. I don't think anybody alive does."

"What are you two doing?", came the Doctor's irritated voice. "We're trying to stop the end of the world here."

Rose just rolled her eyes and they joined the Doctor in sitting in front of Will's desk.

"So, Carrionites, Doctor... enlighten us.", Rose told him, grinning widely.

The Doctor glared at her for a moment, before he went into full lecture-mode: "The Carrionites disappeared way back at the dawn of the universe. Nobody was sure, if the were real or a legend."

"Well, I am going for real.", Will told them dryly.

"Me, too.", Rose grinned, throwing her hand up as if to vote.

"How can you still make jokes about this?", Martha asked her in a shocked whisper.

"Sadly, you get used to a lot of stuff after a while.", Rose answered slightly irritated. This was Martha's first adventure, but she had been doing this for over two years now. If she took everyone, who wanted to end the world, too seriously, she'd drive herself crazy. A thought suddenly hid her with full force: Oh God, she was turning into the Doctor! Well, if she was honest with herself, she had always been a lot calmer about this, than Martha was right now... or hadn't she?

"Anyway...", the Doctor interrupted them sternly, as Martha opened her mouth to reply.

"So...", Rose continued, "What do these ones want then?"

"A new empire on earth. A world of bones and blood and witchcraft.", came the factual answer.

"But how?", asked Martha.

"I'm looking at the man with the words.", the Doctor told them, turning his attention to Will, who backed away in surprise: "Me? But I've done nothing."

"Hold on though.", a look of realization appeared on Martha's face, "What were you doing last night, when that Carrionite was in the room?"

"Finishing the play.", Will told her cautiously.

"Oh", the Doctor seemed to have caught on now, "What happens on the last page?"

"The boys get the girls. They have a bit of a dance. It's all funny and thought provoking as usual.", he waved their concern away, before a far away look entered his eyes, "Except those last view lines. Funny thing is, I don't remember writing them."

"That's it!", the Doctor shouted in excitement, "They used you. They gave you the final words. Like a spell, like a code. Love's Labours Won, it's a weapon. The right combination of words, spoken in the right place, with the shape of the Globe as an energy converter! The play is the thing! And yes, you can have that."

"A map.", Rose interrupted before Will, who looked slightly gob-smacked, could respond to that, "We need a map to find the witches."

Wordlessly Will left the room to return moments later, clutching a map under his arm and spreading it out over his desk, so they could all pour over it.

"There it is!", the Doctor exclaimed seconds later, pointing at one of the streets, "All Hallows Street. We'll track them down. Will, you get to the Globe. Whatever you do, stop that play."

"I'll go with him.", Rose told them.

"What?!", the Doctor starred at her and Rose noticed the hurt sounding in this one word.

"We are four people. So, we go off in pairs. Martha is new to this. I'm not. It makes sense for me to go with Will."

The Doctor just stared at her for a moment longer, before he turned away abruptly. Martha and Will were looking between the two uncomfortably.

"We'll do it like that.", Will told them, when no one else made any attempts to talk: "Good luck, Doctor. Martha."

"Good luck, Shakespeare.", came the soft response, still not acknowledging Rose, who couldn't explain what the hell she had done this time. They had been doing so well before, she had thought they could just forget about their stupid argument... or rather, her argument.

"Come on.", Will told her, took her hand and together the ran outside and back towards the Globe.

The performance was already in full swing when they reached the Globe, forcing their way through the back entrance and onto the stage.

"Stop the play! I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but stop! This performance must end immediately."

"Oh, everyone's a critic.", the actor they'd interrupted exclaimed, causing the perplexed audience to laugh.

"I'm sorry, you'll get a refund. But this play must not be performed.", Will continued desperately. And then, without any warning, he went limp and fell to the ground. Rose screamed in surprise, when his hand pulled her down with him.

"Is he drunk or what?!", someone nearby shouted.

"Will? Will?! Are you all right?!", Rose asked, while frantically searching the crowed for the witches.

"Get him of the stage.", someone yelled, pulling Rose out of her panicked search.

"No, wait!", she screamed, getting on her feet, "Will is right! You've got to stop. Stop the play!"

Somebody grabbed her from behind, obviously planning to just drag her off, while two others carried Will. But Rose wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Let go!", she hissed angrily and threw her head back. She was rewarded with a loud crunch and a painful yelp, when she broke the guy's nose, who let go immediately.

"Stop this play right now!", but nobody way listening. The audience was hollering and laughing, obviously really enjoying the whole thing. Two men took hold of Rose's arms, careful not to let her anywhere near their faces and threw her out of the back door, while she was screaming and kicking all the way.

Great, she thought angrily, now she was standing outside the damn Globe, no was back inside and Will was probably somewhere inside, still unconscious.

"Well, that worked out perfectly.", she mumbled in frustration and decided to go after the Doctor and Martha to warn them, that they had failed.

She found them somewhere halfway to All Hallows Street, running towards her. Rose didn't even stop, she just turned around to run back to the Globe.

"What happened?!", the Doctor shouted, while sprinting up to her.

"Will was knocked out. And I was kicked out.", she answered, when the Globe came insight, a huge red cloud hanging overhead.

"Stage door!", the Doctor told them and Rose led the way, telling him: "Locked. I tried to get back in."

Rose and Martha recoiled in shock,when the Doctor simply kicked the door down and rushed inside. They could see the audience panicking, but before they could react, the doors to the stage slammed shut right in front of them.

"Will!", Rose shouted and ran over to the stiring figure to her left.

"Stop the play. I think that was it. Yeah, I said stop the play!", the Doctor told them angrily, making Rose snap back aggressively: " Yeah, and you wanted to stop the witches. That seems to have worked out juuuuust fine."

"Not now!", Martha interrupted them, rolling her eyes in annoyance, when they heard the Carrionites cackle in glee: "Now begins the millennium of blood."

The quartet stormed onto the stage almost at the same time, as weird winged creatures appeared overhead. Rose froze in shock for a moment, feeling strongly reminded of the reapers.

"Come on, Will, history needs you!", the Doctor shouted at them, looking into the sky with a mixture of horror and pure excitement, that was just so... Doctor. Rose couldn't help but smile.

"But what can I do?!", Will asked desperately.

"Reverse it!"

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"The shape of the Globe gives words power, but you're the wordsmith, the one true genius. The only man clever enough to do it."

"But what words? I have none ready!"

"Oh come on!", Rose interrupted their screamed dialogue, "You're William Shakespeare. You can always find the right words. Words that will last forever. Believe me, we all had to suffer through some. Believe me, Will, and believe in yourself. Just DO it!"

Will looked at her in admiration for a tiny little moment before determination entered his eyes and he raised his arms, shouting: "Close up this din of hateful, dire decay, decomposition of your witches' plot. You thieve my brains, consider me your toy. My ravishing Rose tells me I am not! Foul Carrionite spectres, cease your show! Between the points..."

" !", helped the Doctor, which Will repeated and then added: "Banished lik a tinker's cuss, I say to thee..."

"Expelliarmus!", shouted Martha insecurely.

"Expelliarmus!", agreed the others, with the Doctor adding one enthusiastic: "Good old JK!" for good measure.

The Carrionites screamed in terror, got sucked into a wild wind-hose and vanished in a swirl of red, black and white. Leaving a clear, normal sky behind, as if nothing had ever happened.

Silence lay heavy on the theatre, when suddenly, cautiously someone started to clap, others soon following.

"They think it was all special effects?", Martha asked in amazement.

"Oh, the things humans are prepared to believe to keep their world intact.", Rose answered, smiling fondly as she remembered what she used to be like.

"Not all of them.", the Doctor said, looking at her with brown eyes burning intensely.

"I said students.", she told him breathlessly, but he only laughed and ran of to fetch the crystal, that apparently served as a prison now. They all returned to the Inn after that, the Doctor laying out a few blankets on the floor for himself, while Rose and Martha shared the bed. They all fell asleep as soon, as they hid their pillows, even the ever complaining "I don't need to sleep" Doctor.

They met at the Globe the next morning, wanting to say goodbye to Will and looking for copies of the (now) lost play. The Doctor wandered off again and Rose, Martha and Will sat next to each other on stage, telling jokes... with minimal success.

"I don't get it.", Rose said sadly, just as the Doctor returned. Wearing a ruff and... "Is that a skull, Doctor?"

"It is.", the Doctor replied enthusiastically, "Doesn't it look like a Sycorax?"

"Sycorax. Nice word. I'll have that of you as well.", Will told him.

"I'll have ten percent. How's your head?"

"Still aching."

"Here. I got you this.", the Doctor took of his ruff and handed it over. "Keep it. It suits you."

"Seriously, Doctor?", Rose laughed loudly.

"What about the play?", Martha asked.

""Gone. Every single copy."

"My lost masterpiece.", mourned Will, looking around sadly.

"You could write it up again.", Martha proposed, not noticing the Doctor's panicked face.

"Yeah, better not, Will.", he interrupted, before he could get the wrong idea.

"Oh, but I have new ideas. Perhaps it's time I wrote about fathers and sons, in memory of my boy, my precious Hamnet."

"Hamnet?", Martha asked incrediously.

"That's him."

"Hamnet?"

"What's wrong with that?", Will asked defensively.

"Nothing.", Rose told him , squeezing his hand reassuringly, "It's a great name."

"Anyway.", came the Doctor's unusually hard interruption, "Time we were of. We've got a nice attic in the TARDIS, where this lot can scream for all eternity. And we have to take Martha back to Freedonia.

"You mean travel through time and space."

"What?", the Doctor looked positively gob-smacked at Will's words.

"You're from another world, like the Carrionites, Martha is from the future and you, Rose, either are from another world as well or you have travelled with the Doctor for a very long time. Which one is it?"

"She doesn't just travel with me. She lives with me.", the Doctor told him, possessively laying a hand on Rose's shoulder, causing pure joy to burn through her and Martha to stifle a laugh.

"We are alike in many ways, Doctor. Rose was right."

"Funny thing is: That happens a lot."

Oh, how Rose wished she could see the Doctor's face right then, especially when Will winked at her again. Before anyone could react though, a scream of "Will!", interrupted the little group.

"Will, you'll never believe it, she's here!"

"We're the talk of the town.", a second man chimed in, who, Rose noted with some satisfaction, had a bruised and swollen nose.

"Who?", Martha asked, getting up in anticipation.

"Her Majesty, she's here."

Just as Rose wanted to repeat Martha's question, a fanfare sounded and Queen Elizabeth entered with her guards.

"Queen Elizabeth the First!", exclaimed the Doctor happily.

The Queen did not seem to share is enthusiasm: 2Doctor?"

"What?"

"My sworn enemy!"

"What?!"

"Off with his head!"

Rose cut the Doctor of in his next shocked "What?!" by taking his hand, running for the nearby door and shouting: "Bye, Will!"

They ran through the streets, chased by the Queen's guards. "What have you done to upset her?!", Martha asked, breathing heavily.

"How should I know? We haven't met her yet. That's time travel for you. Can't wait to ind out."

Rose reached the TARDIS first, threw open the door and ran in head first, followed by the others.

"Uhhhhhh, something to look forward to.", the Doctor laughed, when he ran over to the console to pilot them into the vortex once more, all of them laughing in joy.


	6. Tiny, precious Moments

Chapter 6

Tiny, precious moments

"All right then. One trip we said. One trip to say thanks, right? So, back to London.", the Doctor chirped happily, dancing around the console, with Martha holding on next to him and Rose leisurely occupying her favourite spot on the TARDIS: the pilot seat.

Rose's head popped up to see Martha's joyous grin slip of her face. One trip, mh? She had actually thought he'd asked Martha to join them as a constant buffer. Maybe she'd been wrong after all.

"Well, Doctor, what exactly does that even mean?", she asked him, trying for an honestly curious expression.

"What does what mean?", he replied distractedly.

"One trip. Is that one stop... or one adventure... one run for her life... or more like, you know... how we started out: One trip to the future, one to the past."

"But that wasn't on trip, Rose.", the Doctor told her, obviously still not getting the hint. Still, Martha looked at Rose and mouthed "thanks", but Rose wasn't finished yet.

"It's one of the things the Doctor likes to do the most, you know?", she told Martha loudly, "He likes to show people new things. And I get it, it's really great. I got to do that once."

The Doctor snored rather unmanly next to them, while Martha looked really confused.

"Why only once?", she asked.

"Because her pretty boy got a door in his brain.", the Doctor sneered distastefully and Rose was actually sure to hear a slight northern accent shine through.

"Wait. My God, really?! That actually happened? I thought it was... you know... a joke.", Martha screeched, looking between them in shock.

"Pretty boy, really, Doctor? I don't think you wanna go there. Not in this body."

"And what do you mean ´this body´? You guys are making no sense at all.", Martha desperately tried to get a word in, while the Doctor and Rose seemed perfectly content with ignoring her completely.

"Excuse me, I'm not some..."

"Stop it. Both of you!", Martha shouted angrily, making the Doctor look at her open-mouthed and Rose cringe guiltily.

"Do you two really need to do that? Seriously, Rose always teasing and poking, the Doctor acting like a jealous preschooler. Argh. It's annoying."

"I think our conversation has gotten slightly of track. Yes.", the Doctor told them after a moment of stunned silence.

"How about one trip to the future then, Doctor? Something nice?", Rose asked, making big, sad eyes at the Doctor, who couldn't suppress a happy smile, the tension from before all gone in the blink of an eye.

"Fine, if Martha would like that?"

"Very, very much!", Martha told them happily, positively beaming at Rose in gratitude.

"So, I'll think of something nice and..."

"We'll get some nice tea, yeah?", Rose asked him and his happy smile grew even wider.

"Brilliant, yes. Alons-y!"

"Come on, Martha!", Rose said and lead her out of the console room, "You haven't actually seen this place yet, haven't you?"

"No, I haven't. How big is it?"

"Infinite."

"And I am NOT some pretty boy!", the Doctor shouted after them.

The Doctor joined the two laughing women a couple of minutes later, sitting around the kitchen table and a nice, hot cup of tea waiting for him.

"We've landed.", he told them rather unnecessarily, since they had of course felt it and set down to drink his tea.

They sat in comfortable silence like that for a while, before Martha started to giggle into her cup.

"What's so funny?", Rose asked, hoping to get in on the joke.

"It's just... You know. When you imagine time travel and aliens and stuff and... well imagine travelling with an alien and his girlfriend, it sounds so grand. And now we are sitting here. In the kitchen. Drinking tea. It's just... so domestic.", Martha laughed and Rose could definitely see her point: Her life appeared strangely surreal, if Martha put it like that.

"Did you actually say domestic?", the Doctor asked her appalled.

"Yeah, why? What's wrong with that?"

"It's through back Thursday.", Rose told her, grinning madly. While the Doctor looked actually hurt.

"More like the day of insiders.", Martha grumbled.

"Where did you bring us anyway, Doctor? Something nice, like... a market?", Rose asked, before she had to explain about the whole regeneration thing.

"What is it with you and markets? No, not a market. But somewhere nice."

They made their way back to the console room, Martha almost skidding in excitement and Rose and the Doctor laughing at her joy.

From his behaviour Rose was expecting some big, beautiful, grand, fantastic... rain?!

"Well, this looks nice.", Martha said with some disappointment in her voice. The Doctor's face fell visibly, as he took in the dark, dirty buildings surrounding them and waste splattered all around them.

"Oh, real rain. London rain. I missed this.", Rose smiled, trying to cheer the Doctor up, "Let's get undercover somewhere."

"This actually feels like plain old earth to me. Present day. Probably a Tuesday.", Martha told them, after they had found cover under a doorway.

"Well, it's not plain old earth. Hold on, hold on. Let me take a look.", the Doctor said, when he spotted some sort of out of order monitor. He took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at it. A blond woman appears, saying: "And the driving should be clear and easy, with fifteen extra lanes open for the New New Jersey express-way." The woman vanished after that and a beautiful, familiar picture appeared.

"Hang on! That's New New York!", Rose laughed happily, "We're back in New New York."

"You mean New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York.", the Doctor grinned happily at Rose's joy.

"Say that again. I dare you.", Martha told him.

"We're in New New York. On New Earth.", Rose replied. "At least it looked like the picture did last time we were here."

"You've been here before?", Martha asked.

"Well, yes. That was it what Rose wanted, wasn't it? I thought our conversation this morning was all about you showing Martha something."

"Yeah, sure. Didn't think you were listening, though.", Rose answered, fidgeting uncomfortably.

To her utmost surprise the Doctor took her chin in his hand, forced her to look in his eyes and said: "I always listen to you. Always."

Rose stared at his beautiful, brown eyes and leaned forward a little, her breath stuck in her throat. Her brain was racing a million miles an hour and at the same time not working at all. He was going to kiss her, she was sure of it. No excuse, no genetic transfer. Just him. And her. Them.

"Oh, you should have said!", someone shouted loudly next to them, making the Doctor and Rose jump apart in shock and Martha scream in frustration, "How long have you been here? Happy. You want happy?!"

Hatches opened around them, people appearing and shouting different moods at them: "Anger! Mellow! Happy!"

Rose couldn't even follow them, she still felt totally lost buy the sudden change of events.

"No, thanks.", the Doctor told them tersely. At least I'm not the only one, who did not like being interrupted, Rose thought in relief.

"Are they selling drugs?", Martha asked and Rose was really ashamed to realized that she had totally forgotten the other woman. Had the Doctor and her really just almost kissed with Martha standing next to them like a third wheel. Oh dear. That would be cause for a huuuuge apology later. Maybe a leisure palace.

"I think they are selling moods.", came the Doctor's dark reply.

"Same thing, isn't it?", Martha shot back and observed the people in the booths disdainfully.

Suddenly more people emerge from the different corners of the small space , looking tired and ragged, as they approach the merchants, who promptly start shouting again. A young woman approached the both the trio was standing in front of and said: "I want to buy forget."

"I've got forget, my darling. What strength? How much do you want to forget?"

"It's my mother and father. They went on the motorway."

"Oh, that's swine.", the merchant answered with a hint of real pity in his voice, "Try this. Forget 43. That's two credits."

They exchanged money and the young woman received a patch, that she obviously planed on putting on.

"Hold on!", the Doctor interrupted her, "Sorry, but what exactly happened to your parents?"

"They drove off.", came the matter-of-fact reply.

"Yeah, but they might come back.", the Doctor told her, now completely bewildered at such strange behaviour.

"Everyone goes on the motorway in the end. I've lost them."  
"And that means you want to forget them?", Rose was totally shocked. She would never, ever see her Mum again, either, but that didn't mean she'd want to forget a single thing about her.

"No. No, wait!", the Doctor reached for the woman, who had just looked at rose sadly and stuck the patch on her neck, her eyes instantly dulling: "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"Your parents. Your mother and father. They're on the motorway.", the Doctor desperately reminded her.

"Are they? That's nice. I won't keep you.", and as if in trance the woman simply turned around and wondered off.

The time travellers starred after her in disbelieve.

"Soooo, "Martha started carefully, "This is the human race now? A bunch of drug-addicts? How far into the future are we anyway."

"About five billion years.", the Doctor told her distractedly.

"How long since we've been...", Rose started, but was cut off, when someone grabbed her from behind, putting an arm around her, holding her tightly and starting to drag her backwards, while a woman next to her pointed a gun at the Doctor.

"I'm sorry, really, really sorry. We need three, that's all.", the man holding Rose told them, real regret in his voice, but Rose hardly noticed that. Her eyes were fixed on the Doctor, who didn't look surprised. Or worried. Or even scared. He looked furious, absolutely terrifying. Rose had seen the Doctor in a lot of terrible situations before, but even she had never seen him look like that. Funnily enough her only coherent thought at that moment was: Well, that's not an oncoming storm. That's a full-blown tornado.

"Let her go.", he hissed, his voice dangerously low as he slowly walked towards them. The woman holding the gun seemed to realize that the Doctor was completely ignoring the threat and did the worst thing possible: She pointed the gun at Rose. The Doctor froze instantly. His arms outstretched to reach Rose , but his gaze never leaving the man holding her.

"Just let her go and whatever it is you want: We will help you. But let her go RIGHT NOW!", completely gone was the calm demeanour, his rage now blazing freely. Rose felt the man behind her tremble in fear, but he was not letting go. Instead they were now moving backwards as fast, as possible without falling.

"No!", Rose heard the Doctor shout, when her kidnappers dragged her through a door and looked it right in front of her eyes.

The man let's her turn around, only holding her arm while pulling her behind him, the woman's gun still pointed at her.

"You'll better let me go. The Doctor will kill you for this. Worse, he'll let you live, so you can regret it forever. Let me go!"

"Give her some sleep.", the man instructed his partner, ignoring Rose's threat completely.

The woman pulled out another patch and came up behind Rose, who was fully prepared to break someone's nose. Again. She would have threatened them somehow, but if not even the Doctor could do that, she was pretty sure it wouldn't work anyway. She slammed her elbow into the man's stomach with full force, hoping he'd let go, but as he collapsed with a pathetic "Ow", the woman head already reached her and Rose blacked out. Again. Thinking that at least she'd managed one adventure without it.

"They they the air smells of apple grass. Can you imagine?"

The words slowly penetrated the thick, white mist cottoning Rose's thoughts. Apple grass, yes, lovely. Lying on the Doctor's coat, watching the city, apple grass. The Doctor. New New York. New New Doctor.

With a jolt Rose awoke, lying down on a small bed in what looked like the back of a car. Motor home. Whatever.

"The houses are made of wood. There are jobs going in the foundries. Everyone says so.", came her kidnappers dreamy voice.

Rose looked around frantically. She needed to get out, needed to get back. The gun that woman had pointed at her earlier lay only inches away. Careful not to alert her kidnappers to her plan, she slit over and took it, pointing it at the two people in front of her: "Take me back right now. I don't know who you are and I don't really care, just take me back and we'll forget this ever happened."

"I'm sorry, that's not a real gun.", the woman told her nonchalantly. Great, Rose thought, just great. She didn't even bother to check. Her weird kidnappers would not be so calm, if it were real, she knew. So she just threw it down next to her, desperately trying to come up with a different plan.

"What's your name?", the woman asked.

"Rose.", she told her reflexively, still scanning the area.

"Well, I'm Cheen and this is Milo. And I swear we are sorry. We're really, really sorry. We just needed access to the fast lane, but I promise, as soon as we arrive, we'll drop you off and you can go back and find your friend."

Rose narrowed her eyes suspiciously, nothing was ever that easy. She had learned that the hard way.

"Seriously," she asked, "just like that?"

"I swear! Look, honesty patch.", and Cheen showed her another one of those dreadful patches attached to her neck.

"I still don't get, how you can justify kidnapping and threatening me with the fact, that you want to get somewhere faster. Where are we going anyway?", for the first time she paid attention to the scenery outside, "And where are we right now?"

"We're on the motorway.", Milo answered, his gaze not wavering from the windscreen.

"And obviously it consists of fog.", Rose told them. She was slowly beginning to let her guard down. The pair really didn't seem all that dangerous. A little simple maybe, but not especially malicious,

"That's the exhaust fumes.", Milo told her, either not understanding or caring about her attempt on sarcasm.

"We're going out to Brooklyn. Everyone says the air is so much cleaner and we could stay in Pharmacy Town, because...", Milo's voice trailed off, when he smiled at Cheen with such a happy expression, that Rose almost forgave him for kidnapping her. Almost.

"Well, because of me.", Cheen continued, the same deep happiness radiating of her now, "I'm pregnant. We only discovered it last week. Scan says it's going to be a boy."

Rose felt a painful pang at that. It was so... pregnant yeah, a baby. They sounded so happy.

"Congratulations.", she told them and really meant it. Something was going on here, something weird and she really didn't think that being angry at them would help her solve anything. Or get her back to the Doctor.

"Thank you:", Cheen answered and turned around to smile at her.

"This'll be as fast, as possible. We'll take the motorway to the Brooklyn flyover and after that it's going to take a while, because there is no fast lane, just ordinary roads, but at least it's direct.", Milo told them proudly.

"It's only ten miles.", Cheen tried to reassure her and Rose almost sighed in relieve. Then miles, ok. She'd get a lift back after that and everything would be all right again.

"How long will we need for that?", she asked hopefully, having no idea how fast cars in the year 5 Billion actually were.

"About six years.", Cheen answered with a thoughtful expression.

Rose had misheard her. Obviously. She could not really have meant that!

"Be just in time for him to start school.", Milo added happily.

Ok, not misheard then.

"What? Six years. Ten miles in six years! So you kidnapped me, effectively stealing what? 12 years of my life, so you could be together, not even thinking about the fact that maybe, maybe I had someone I loved and wanted to be with, too?! Please, please, for the sake of all of humanity: Tell me you're joking!"

At least they had the good grace to look ashamed.

It's okay, Rose told herself, I'll get out of this. I'll find a way. And if not: The Doctor would surely find her, he'd never leave her. But as much as she tried to convince herself, she could not black out that terrible terrifying voice telling her, that he'd left companions behind before.

"No, not to you.", he had said and she would hold him to it.

"Wow.", Rose said, pulling herself out of her dark thoughts, "How many cars are out there?!"

"I don't think anyone really knows.", Cheen answered and handed her something that looked like a biscuit of sorts, "Here we go. Hungry?"

"Oh, thanks, but I'm not really hungry.", Rose replied, but held on to the thing anyway, since Cheen did not seem inclined to take it back, "How far down do we have to go, before we reach that fast lane?"

"Oh, it's right at the bottom, so we have to get underneath the whole traffic jam. Not many people can afford three passengers, you know? That's why it's so empty down there. Rumour has it you can reach up to 30 miles per hour!", Milo told her excitedly.

Rose was about to make a snarky comment on that when she remembered traffic in London and thought better of it.

"And until then we're just supposed to live in here? It's tiny.", Rose remarked, stifling a laughter at the thought of saying: "And your son will stay an only child, I will not listen to any of that. Thank you very much."

"Oh, we've stocked up. Got self-replicating fuel, muscle stimulants for exercise and there is a chemical toilette in the back, that recycles all waste products as food.", Cheen chirped proudly, making Rose immensely grateful not to have eaten a thing.

"Oh, another gap. This is brilliant.", Milo grinned, as they drove down even lower. An artificial voice told them: "Car sign in."

"Car 465 Diamond 6, on descent to fast lane, thank you very much."

"Please drive safely.", the Computer advised them, as they reached yet another lane.

They drove down for what appeared to be hours, maybe they were, Rose had totally lost track of time, as she watched Milo navigate them deeper and deeper through countless cars and there thick, heavy exhaust fumes.

"Another ten layers to go. We're scorching. See?", Milo grinned, as they descended yet another lane. But Rose hardly noticed him. A deep, frighting growling penetrated the cars walls. And Rose was pretty sure it came from beneath them.

"Do you here that?", she asked with a feeling of terrible foreboding. Something was not all right. Really not all right.

"It's that noise.", Cheen answered, awe written in every line on her face, "It's like Kate said, the stories are true."

"Which stories?", Rose desperately tried to keep the fear out of her voice, but danger from deep below really did not remind her of happy times.

"It's the sound of the air vents. That's all.", Milo told them, but Rose got the strong impression that he was trying to convince them as much as himself, "The exhaust fumes travel down, so at the base of the tunnel they've got air vents."

Rose bend forward a little to look down a little more: "Don't know about you, mate, but that does not look like air vents are working down there."

"Oh, the stories are much better anyway.", Cheen said, still looking inexplicitly exited, "They say people do missing on the motorway. Some cars just vanish, never to be seen again, because there is something living down there in the smoke. Something huge and hungry. And if you get lost on the road, it's waiting for you."

As if on cue, a distant roar could be heard. "Perfect.", grumbled Rose, "Just perfect."

"But, like I said: Air vents. Going down to the next layer.", Milo told them, but even his voice was quivering slightly now.

"Are you serious? Something is clearly down there and you are driving towards it? We need to get up!", Rose tried to convince him, when they could hear another deep growling beneath them, but Milo ignored her completely, driving down even further until the computer finally told them: " Fast lane access. Please drive safely."

"We made it. The fast lane.", Milo smiled widely, as the looked ahead and couldn't see a single car on the empty lane in front of them.

They drove in relative silence after that, Milo happy about there quick progress, Cheen lost in her own thoughts and Rose trying to figure out a way to get them all out of this.

"How long have you been together, you and that man you were with?", Cheen suddenly asked her, turning around in her seat to look at her.

"We've been travelling together for over two years.", Rose told her tiredly, closing her eyes and resting her head against the wall.

"He looked... scary.", Cheen continued carefully.

"He can be, yes."

"I'm sorry we took you from him."

Slowly Rose opened her eyes again to look at Cheen, who was honestly distraught, "We just didn't know what else to so."

"He'll come for us. And then we'll find out what's going on her, Cheen.", Rose tried to comfort the young woman,

"He looked so scary.", Cheen repeated quietly, "I'm not sure I want him to find us."

Rose opened her mouth to tell Cheen that the Doctor wouldn't hurt her, but in truth she wasn_t sure what exactly the Doctor would do. He had looked scary, true, but was he really that terrifying to people who didn't know him? Maybe she had just been with him too long to see that anymore. The thought of Donna, who had been so afraid of the Doctor that she didn't want to come with them, although it wasn't her he'd been angry at.

He needs someone to stop him, Donna had said.

"Brooklyn turn-off one: closed.", interrupted the computers emotionless voice their discussion.

"What?", Milo asked, disbelieve and shock in his face.

Cheen turned towards the windscreen, "Try again!"

"Brooklyn turn-off one: closed."

"Try the next one."

"Brooklyn turn-off two: closed."

"What do we do?", Cheen looked helplessly at Milo, who tried to keep up a brave face for her sake.

"We'll keep going round. We'll do the whole loop and by the time we'll come back around, they'll be open."

To make matters worse, the deep growling beneath them started up again. Louder and frighteningly so: nearer.

"Mate, I really don't think those are air vents.", Rose tried again.

"What else could it be?", Milo asked and Rose realized that Milo had long since come to the same conclusion, he was just too scared to admit it. Just a kid, really, Rose thought. A frightened little kid.

"What the hell is that?", Cheen asked, close to tears no and looking at Milo for help. Poor Milo, Rose thought, Cheen had that much trust in him and he didn't want to disappoint her.

"It's just the hydraulics.", he tried to reassure her, while the growling beneath them went on mercilessly.

Rose didn't bother contradicting him. It didn't matter now. They all knew the truth, even if they wouldn't admit it.

"What if Rose is right, Milo? What if something's alive down there?", Cheen asked and turned around to look at Rose pleadingly.

"It's all exhaust fumes out there. Nothing could breathe in that.", Milo tried again.

"You would not believe how resourceful life is. It always finds a way, mate.", Rose told him darkly, peering out to try to get a glimpse, anything really.

"Calling Car 465 Diamond 6. Repeat, calling Car 465 Diamond 6.", another voice cut in from the speaker on the dashboard.

"This is Car 465 Diamond 6. Who's that? Where are you?", Milo answered.

"I'm in the fast lane. About 50 yards behind you.", came the reply, "Can you get back up? Can you get off the fast lane?"

"We only have permission to go down. We need the Brooklyn Flyover."", Milo answered, brown furrowed in concentration.

"It's closed. Go back up!"

"We can't. We'll just go round.", Milo was getting desperate know, Rose noticed, still fighting against the realization of what the other voice was really trying to tell him.

"Don't you understand? They are closed. They're always closed!", the voice answered with the same kind of disbelieving tone Rose had used before, not understanding how someone could be so thick, "We're stuck down here and there is something else out there in the fog. Can't you hear it?" Another big roar can be heard, both from beneath and over the speaker.

"Milo...", Rose started, but he interrupted her: "That's the air vents."

"Jehovah, what are you?! Some stupid kid?", the voice shouted in frustration, "Get out of here!"

The sound of something hitting the other car shook Rose into action.

"Milo! We need to..."

"What was that?", Milo exclaimed in horror.

"I can't move!", the voice answered, sounding so utterly defeated that Rose felt tears well up in her eyes, "They've got us!"

"What's...", but this time Rose interrupted Milo: "What is it? Tell me, what you can see. Anything that comes into mind?"

"To late. You need to leave, now! Go, go, go!", the voice shouted again. And then an eary silence fell over the car.

"Milo.", Rose told him, trying to keep her voice calm and steady, "Drive. Just drive, we need to get away from here."

"What, no!", Milo bend over, closer to the speaker, "Hello? Can you here me? Hello? Are you there?!"

"No, they are not! They are dead. No if you want us to live, if you want your son to even be born: Drive. And fast.", Rose shouted, finally shaking Milo from his stupor, who fired up the car and accelerated as fast, as he could. Simultaneously asking for permission to ascend.

They didn't get to far, before something hit them from beneath.

"Go faster!", Cheen shouted in terror.

"I can't. We're at top speed!", Milo answered, his eyes wide in horror.

"No access above.", the computer's cold voice answered there plea.

"But this is an emergency!", Milo shouted at his computer.

"Milo, wait!", Rose interrupted him, when a set of claws appeared in front of them and Milo swayed to avoid them"wait!"

"What?!", Milo cried out, swerving around another claw.

"How do they know where we are? They can't see us, not in that fog. We need to turn of the car! No sound, no heat, no anything! Turn it of!"

"But what if you're wrong? How will we get away then?!"

"We won't. But we can't escape them like this either. It's our only chance!", Rose answered. Milo and Cheen looked at her, desperately wanting, needing her to tell them what to do. They were not used to life or death situation. She was. And if that meant taking charge and saving these poor kids, then so be it.

Milo stopped the car then, everything went dark and quite.

"They've stopped.", Cheen breathed in relief.

"For now, yes. But we're stuck. Can't get away without them noticing.", Rose dampened the mood.

"And we've lost the air con. If we don't switch the engines back on, we won't be able to breathe.", Milo extended the list of their problems.

"Oh, brilliant. How long have we got?"

"Eight minutes, maximum.", Milo answered.

"What do we do?", Cheen panicked, hands trembling terribly.

"We wait. And talk. Come on, Cheen, tell me something about yourself.", Rose tried to distract her.

"Nothing to tell.", Cheen responded, "Talking will just make this worse. We need the air."

"Don't think it matters much. Come on, we'll think of something. Ans if we don't: The Doctor will come for us."

"You really have a lot of faith in him, don't you?", Cheen asked, studying her face in amazement.

"Of course I do. It's always like that. Either he comes for me or I have to get back to him. It's what we do.", Rose told her.

"Until the first time it doesn't work.", Milo replied gloomily.

"Well, aren't you mister positive."

"Positive?! Those people behind us died.", Milo answered with such a forlorn look in his eyes, that Rose wanted to hug him. Cheen obviously had the same idea.

"No one's coming. No one.", Milo continued, when Cheen wrapped her arms around him.

"Maybe Rose's scary Doctor will come.", Cheen said.

"My scary Doctor, really?", Rose smiled a little at that.

"Well, he looked kinda nice.", Cheen grinned.

"The last time we were here, he was described as `foxy`", Rose recounted with a font smile.

"Where's home then? I never asked.", Cheen realized.

"Home?", Rose thought about it, "Home is with the Doctor. His ship... he is home."

"I know what you mean.", Cheen smiled and squeezed Milo's hand.

"Two minutes.", Milo informed them, his voice a lot softer now, as he smiled at Cheen sadly.

"We need to get the car back on, yeah?", Rose asked.

"Yes. Need to have it on a bit, then we can try shutting it down for another eight minutes. If we can survive the claws.", Milo aswered.

"That might by us some time. Good thinking, Milo."

"Ready?", he asked them and turned the car back on, when both women nodded .

"Systems back online."

"Good luck.", Milo breathed, as the claws started appearing around them again and he swayed out of their way.

A moment later Rose screamed in surprise, when something grabbed them from beneath.

"Oh no, oh no!", Cheen whimpered, but a second later they were free again.

"Drive. Drive. Drive!", Rose screamed, when something else hit them.

The cars monitor flared to life, and Rose gave a squeal of relief, when she saw the Doctor's face: "Oi! Car 465 Diamond 6. Drive up! And you better bring Rose back to me unharmed!"

"We can't go back up! We'll hit the layer!", Milo objected.

"Just do as he says!", Rose almost climbed over him to drive the car up herself in frustration.

"You've got access above. Now go!", the Doctor shouted form the monitor again and Milo steered the car up, out of the reach of those enormous claws.

"Is that the sky?", Cheen asked in wonder, when they reached higher and higher, "It is! Oh my God, that's the sky. The real sky!"

"And Car 465 Diamond 6, I've send you a flightpath. Come to the Senate.", the Doctor's voice came back.

"On our way!", Rose grinned, crouching closer to the monitor.

"The first rule, Rose, the most important rule!", the Doctor reprimanded her ans Rose was just about to answer, when a voice could be heard behind him, beckoning him away.

"Got the flightpath. We're on our way.", Milo informed them as they drove through what seemed to be totally deserted streets.

"What happened here?", Rose asked, looking around in shock.

"Don't know.", Milo answered sadly, "But that's the Senate right there."

He turned the car off and the three exited the car. Milo and Cheen were looking really uncomfortable, but Rose could hardly wait to get back to the Doctor and Martha.

"You are not coming with?", she asked the couple, when they made no move to follow her.

"Nah,", Cheen told her, "Wanna see the sky. Find out what's going on and... you know."

On an impulse Rose hugged a slightly surprised Cheen, who gladly hugged her back: "I'm not sorry we kidnapped you. You saved us. You and your Doctor."

"He's good at that.", Rose answered and was hugged by Milo as well.

"We'll tell our on stories about you.", he promised her and Rose laughed at that, when another car drove up next to them and Martha emerged, shouting greetings to people inside, when she spotted Rose, screamed and ran at her in full speed.

"You are all right! Oh, thank God!"

"Hey, Martha. It's good to see you, too.", Rose laughed, when she was hugged yet again.

"Oh, the Doctor was so worried! I thought he was going to kill Bran, when he refused to go to the fast lane. Seriously, he jumped through that fog to get to you!", Martha told Rose, her face still flushed in relief and excitement.

"Right.", Milo said uncomfortably, "That's our cue. Goodbye, Rose."

"Goodbye and good luck.", Rose answered and waved when the drove away again, following behind the car, that had brought Martha.

"What did you get up to then?", Rose asked as the two women took the steps to get inside and find the Doctor.

"We went through the door as well and got picked up by Bran, Valerie and there kids. Kittens, Rose, they were kittens!", Martha told her with the clearly amazed person, who had realized how big the universe really was.

"I've met cat nuns once, here in New New York. Couldn't stop staring."

"Bran did not wanna go down to the fast lane, so the Doctor left me with them and jumped out of the car. And that's all I know.", Martha continued.

"He jumped out of the car. With all those fumes out there?!", Rose was shocked, Martha had said it before, sure, but it hadn't really registered then.

"You thought he wouldn't?", Martha answered with a strange expression on her face, but Rose's reply got stuck in her throat, when they reached a huge open room full of skeletons.

"What the...?"

"Doctor?!", Martha shouted.

"Over here!", the Doctor answered somewhere to their left, so they followed his voice quickly, to find him kneeling beside "The Face of Boe!", Rose ran forward and crouched down next to the Doctor. Martha followed a bit more slowly, not quite sure what to think of a giant head.

The Doctor looked up to smile at Rose sadly. "You all right?", he asked, laying his hand on her arm. "Yeah, I'm fine. I always am. You know that.", she answered and tried to shake his concern of, with a wide grin, but she couldn't hold his gaze long and turned her attention back to the Face of Boe.

"Come say hallo, Martha. The Face of Boe is an old friend of ours.", she told Martha.

"And this is Hame.", the Doctor introduced, when Martha set down next to them.

"He's the one that saved you, not me.", he continued, turning to Rose again.

"My lord gave his life to save the city and now he is dying.", Hame explained.

"No, don't say that. Not old Boe. Plenty of life left!", disagreed vehemently and Rose raised her hand to place it gently on Boes left cheek. "You saved my life once. In a quiz show.", she told him, feeling tears well up in her eyes. The Doctor might deny it, but she knew right then, that it was true. "It's good to breathe the air ones more.", Boe answered, his voice coming from nowhere, "And see your faces one last time."

"Who is he?", Martha asked, real concern now in her voice, when she saw how effected her two companions seemed to be.

"I don't even know. Legend says the Face of Boe has lived for billions of years. Isn't that right? And you're not about to give up now.", the Doctor told him firmly.

"Everything has its time. You know that, old friend, better than most. And if you have lived as long as I have, you realize something very important: Every precious, tiny little moment counts. If and when you lose them in the end, you'll regret every wasted moment."

The Doctor jerked back, as if Boe had hit him and scanned the huge face intently, but the Face of Boe had fallen silent again.

"The legend says more.", Hame interrupted the silence between them.

"Don't. There is no need for that.", came the Doctor's slightly desperate reply.

"He is dying, Doctor, let him speak.", Rose told him calmly and took his hand.

"It says that the Face of Boe will speak his final secret to a traveller.", Hame continued and the Doctor looked as if he wanted to protest again, but Rose just tightened her hold on his hand. This was important, she knew, they had to hear it.

"I have seen so much. Perhaps too much. I am the last of my kind, as you are the last of yours, Doctor.", Boe told them and Rose could feel Martha's head next to her turn around to stare at the Doctor in shock. Don't ask, she begged silently, please don't ask.

"That's why we have to survive. Both of us. Please don't go.", pleaded the Doctor desperately.

"I must.", Boe told him, his voice now almost inaudible, "But know this, Time Lord: You are not alone. And you never will be again." And with those ominous words, the Face of Boe breathed out for the last time.

They made their way back to the TARDIS a little while later, Rose and the Doctor with linked arms for comfort and Martha walking next to them, deep in thoughts. The booths had all closed down and Rose wondered, if they had all wandered off to the overcity.

"Where to now then?", the Doctor asked joyfully, a fake smile plastered over his face, as he let go of Rose's hand to walk up to the console.

"Actually", Martha started, "I think London would be good, you know? Need to get back to my life."

"You don't want to stay?", Rose was really surprised, Martha had seemed so happy and excited before.

"No. I mean, yes. But I don't belong here. I've got school and family and, you know? I need to get back.", she explained.

"Ok, London it is.", the Doctor agreed and set the coordinates.

"But please, please, make it 12 hours, not 12 months.", Rose tried to hide her confusion and disappointment.

"Once. Once. And you're gonna bring that one up forever, won't you?", came his exasperate reply.

Rose grinned widely, when Martha next to her said: "Well, The Face of Boe said you'd be together forever, didn't he?"

Rose's smile vanished instantly and the Doctor's head turned sharply to look at her.

"What?", Martha asked, looking slightly confused, "What else could he have meant?"


	7. Us

Chapter 7

Us

 

"There we go. Perfect landing. Which isn't easy in such a tight spot!", the Doctor declared proudly, when the TARDIS landed.

"Did you check the date?", Rose asked, only half teasing. She really did not want Martha or her family to go through the same thing she had.

"Yes, it's the morning after we left.", he assured her, when Martha opened the door and stepped out into her living room.

"This is so weird", she said, "Just one night. Everything we did... I met Shakespeare and it's been only one night."

"Time travel is fantastic, isn't it?", Rose agreed, looking around with interest.

"Everything should be as you left it, look: Books, CDs, laundry...", the Doctor continued, making Martha cringe and dash forward to hide her underwear, "So, back where you were, as promised."

"Yes, thanks.", Martha agreed, sounding slightly anxious now, "So... ah... how about I make you a cup of tea?"

"We should probably...", the Doctor started, but was interrupted by Rose, who didn't really want to say goodbye yet, "That would be great!"

"Just sit on the couch, I'll come back with the tea in a mo.", Martha told them, just when her phone started to ring. The answering machine started up almost immediately.

"Martha, are you there? Pick it up, will you?", came an irritated voice from the machine.

"It's Mum. It'll wait. I'll call her back later.", Martha explained.

"All right then, pretend that you're out, if you like.", her Mother continued in that mix of annoyed and resigned only a mother could muster, "I was only calling to say that your sister's on TV. On the news of all things. Just thought you might be interested."

Immediately Martha turned on her TV, revealing an elderly man standing in front of a herd of cameras: "The details are top secret."

"How could Tish end up on the news?", Martha asked in surprise, then pointed at a young woman on screen, "That's her."

"Tonight I will demonstrate a device, which will redefine our world.", the man continued and made a dramatic pause, which prompted Martha to explain: "She's got a new job. PR for some research lab."

"With the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human."

Martha switched the TV of again, and said: "Sorry, I'll get that tea."

Rose and the Doctor plunked onto the couch, sitting in relative silent for a moment.

"Did he...", Rose started, when Martha returned with a tray and their tea.

"Say he was going to change what it means to be human?", the Doctor finished her sentence.

"Yes, that he did.", Rose confirmed.

"So... trouble then?", Martha asked, handing them both a cuppa.

"Might be nothing, but still... we should check it out.", the Doctor told her.

"It'll be at that party tonight, Tish gave me an invite last week. But I don't know how to get you guys in.", Martha explained.

"No trouble, psychic paper.", the Doctor grinned.

"That thing, that didn't fool Shakespeare?", Martha asked in a slightly teasing voice. The Doctor's grin vanished almost instantly, "Well, yes. But I doubt there'll be a real, proper genius check the invitations tonight."

"Uhhh, that means you'll have to wear a tux!", Rose laughed in delight.

"No, I don't. Nothing wrong with my suit.", the Doctor pouted.

"They won't let you in like that, Doctor. Even with psychic paper.", Martha warned him.

"If I make it say the right thing. They will.", The Doctor insisted and Rose decided it was time to pull out the big guns: "Oh.", her face fell, "I thought we might have a nice, normal evening. A party, you know? There is this really nice dress in the TARDIS wardrobe, Martha."

"You can still wear that dress, if you like.", the Doctor insisted, but his voice had become a lot more insecure.

"Yeah, but they'll all stare at you and your suit or gush about whoever you pretend to be and... well, it won't really be a nice evening."

"Well, it's probably best to blend in. A little. Fine, I'll wear that tux, if it makes you happy.", the Doctor caved in and Rose smiled happily and sipped on her tea.

"Although that stupid tux is terribly unlucky.", the Doctor whined.

"Sure it's the tux and not just you?", Martha asked with a mischievous smile on her face.

"Oi!"

They set in comfortable silence after that, Martha seemed contend with being back home, the Doctor with having pleased Rose and Rose with the normality of the moment. Visiting a friend and having a cup of tea. Maybe she should try to get the Doctor to do this more often. Maybe they could visit Sarah Jane some day.

"So, we'll pop back in for the party tonight?", the Doctor asked after a while, shaking Rose out of her happy thoughts. Right, the Doctor didn't like sitting around and visiting friends.

"Pop back in? You're leaving and coming back?", Martha asked, sounding genuinely hurt.

"No, we won't.", Rose assured her, giving the Doctor a hard stare.

"We won't?", he asked, sounding really surprised.

"No, why would we?"

"But it's hours until the party", the Doctor whined.

"And I have to get ready for it.", Rose explained patiently.

"Hours, Rose.", the Doctor told her, clearly not believing she could actually mean it.

Rose felt as if she was arguing with a three year old. Instead of answering she just crossed her arms and looked at him sternly.

"Fine, you women get ready. I'll find something else to do.", he grumbled in defeat and vanished into the TARDIS. Rose turned around to find Martha laughing at her openly.

"What?", she asked.

"You two are just too cute."

"No, we're not.", Rose protested, but Martha laughed only harder.

"That's not why you're leaving, is it?", she asked, the thought had been bothering her the whole time.

"No. Well, it's part of it, but not the real reason.", Martha admitted.

"Oh.", Rose replied sadly, "We really didn't mean to make you feel unwelcome or..."

"No. No. No! That's not what I meant!", Martha interrupted her, "It's just... You and him, you're such a great team and... I don't think I can do that."

"Do what?", Rose was honestly confused now.

"The way you react, you know? As if it's normal, when someone, something tries to destroy the world. And it's all a funny adventure for you guys."

"It's not. We're just used to it. It's what happens: You get used to it.", Rose explained, still not getting what Martha meant.

"But I don't want to get used to that.", Martha told her bluntly, "I don't want to get used to so much cynicism and danger. I still don't know anything about you guys. Last of his kind. What does that even mean, Rose? Why is it you cringed, when I told you it was my mother on the phone?"

"What does it matter?!", Rose shouted, surprised at herself, for how loud her voice had become, "What does that really matter. It's not about our past, it's about all the great things out there!"

"He scared me, Rose. I was really, properly scared of him.", Martha's calm voice shocked Rose out of her sudden anger, "The way he looked at your kidnappers. The way he looked, when Bran did not want to go to the fast lane. Did not want to endanger his kids. Maybe you are all right with that. But I can't travel with people I know nothing about. People that scare me. I simply can't."

"You are not the first one to say that."; Rose told her sadly and sat back down on the couch, "Donna, we offered her to come with us. She said the Doctor was scaring her to death."

"But he's got you. That's good. You're not scared.", Martha said, her voice almost inquiring.

"Of course I'm not. I know him. He'd never...", Rose began, but didn't know how to finish that sentence. What exactly was it Donna and Martha had thought the Doctor would do?

"It doesn't matter anyway.", Martha tried to reassure her, "I never really belonged on the TARDIS. I'm not stupid, you know? First he kissed you and then he invites me to join without even asking you? He used me to push you away. I don't like being used."

Rose didn't know how to respond to that. Rose has suspected the same thing about Martha's "one trip". "I'm sorry. I really am."

"Not your fault. Nobody's fault really. It was fun, now I'll just walk through life with my eyes a little... more open.", Martha smiled.

"Oi! What are you two doing? I thought you needed to get ready?", the Doctor stuck his head out of the TARDIS-door.

"We are.", Rose told him simply.

"How?!"

"We're talking about how to dress, how to do our hair, our nails, our...", Martha chipped in.

"Okay, okay, I get it. Stop.", the Doctor interrupted Martha and threw his hands up in defeat.

"Best start with a shower... and a face-mask, we could agree on that.", Rose said and got up to follow the Doctor back inside the TARDIS, "See you in a bit, Martha."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX

A shower, face-mask, hair-mask and body-peeling later, Rose was sitting in-front of a mirror in her room strengthening her hair before she could move on to nail-polish.

"I thought you were joking about needing hours to get ready."

Rose didn't turn around, when she heard the Doctor's voice sounding from the hallway in front of her room, but smiled at his grumpy expression in the mirror, trying not to burn her hair off.

"Nope. I was dead serious.", she informed him and grinned cheekily.

"I'm bored."

"I assumed as much.", Rose could hardly stop herself from laughing out loud at his petulant stance, "But to you expect me to do about it?"

"Hurry up?", he asked, suddenly sounding more hopeful than anything else.

"Won't work, sorry. I don't get the chance to do this often. Tonight I'll have it all."

"You LIKE doing this?!", now the Doctor looked really shocked, his mouth slightly open.

"I like how it makes me feel.", she stated, moving on to the right side of her head.

"How it makes you feel?"

"Beautiful.", Rose told him.

"But you're always beautiful!", the Doctor blurted out before he realized what he had said and blushed profusely.

"That's very kind of you."

"It's true.", he told her stubbornly.

Rose didn't know what to say to that and apparently neither did the Doctor, but instead of leaving like she had expected him to, he plunged down on her bed and watched, the two of them sitting in comfortable silence.

Rose finished her hair and tried to decide on a nail-polish, when the Doctor spoke again, but this time so quietly, she almost missed it: "I am really sorry."

"For what?", she asked, hardly able to keep herself from staring at him. Maybe talking would be easier without looking.

"For being... a prick. That's the word, right?"

"Yeah, I think so.", she told him, almost whispering now. He was apologizing. Really apologizing.

"I'm a coward. Always have been.", he continued, "I'm not good with... I... I run, Rose, I run."

This time, Rose did turn around in her seat to look at him carefully: "I know that."

"What Martha said... about the Face of Boe... I don't think he meant you.", the Doctor continued sadly.

"I know he didn't.", she told him firmly and stood up to sit beside him, "I promised you forever and I meant it, but I'm not stupid, Doctor, I know I can only promise you my forever, not yours."

She took his hand in hers and his thumb began tracing circles on the back of it.

"But I'd like to meet that person, that can stay with you forever, and thank them whole-heartedly. I don't want you to be alone ever again."

The Doctor finally looked up to smile at her and Rose noticed his eyes shimmering suspiciously, "I don't even want anybody but you.", he told her firmly and Rose felt her heart stop in shock and pure joy. Was he really saying this right now? Was he really going there?

"And I don't want to miss out on anything, Rose. The Face of Boe was right, every precious moment counts. If, you know, you want...", he stopped there, looking at her with such insecurity and hope at the same time that all Rose could think about was kissing him, holding him and never, ever letting him go again. But maybe she misunderstood him? She had kissed him last time and it had all gone wrong after that, she just wouldn't be able to bear that again.

Rose didn't know what to do, her brain felt frozen in shock and happiness and the Doctor just kept looking at her, waiting for her reply.

"I...", she started and stopped again. What to say? What to do?

"You already know everything I could tell you. I've said it all.", she tried again, "I told you I'd never leave, I gave up everything to stay with you. What is it you can possibly want to hear from me now? I don't know, so please tell me."

He didn't. Instead he took her face in his hands and kissed her. There was no rush, no danger, no running for their lives. Just them. The Doctor and Rose Tyler, in the TARDIS. Just as it should be.

It was over far sooner, than Rose would have liked, but she desperately needed some air.

"Are you going to stop running now?", she asked the Doctor breathlessly.

"No.", he answered simply and Rose couldn't believe her ears. He couldn't really mean that, could he? He had kissed her. Kissed her. No excuses, not this time.

"I can't stop running. But maybe you'll just run with me.", he smiled.

"I've been running with you for over two years.", she said, looking at him in disbelieve, "But you keep running from me. I told you I'd stay with you forever, but you... you send me away at Canary Wharf, Doctor, you were prepared to never see me again!"

"I was afraid, Rose. I thought you would..."

"Choose to leave you and stay with my Mum.", she finished the sentence for him, "How could you truly believe that?! After I ripped open the TARDIS to safe you? After I stayed when you left me for another woman? After I told you forever?"

"I thought we had established that I am a coward and a prick.", the Doctor tried to joke, but Rose wasn't buying it. Not this time: "Just promise me. Promise me you won't do that to me again. Promise me I won't wake up one morning with you having decided it became all to much. Promise me you won't just leave me or send me away. Promise me, Doctor, because I can't go on like that."

"I promise.", he said and Rose felt her heart swell, "I promise you. It's us now." And then he kissed her again and pulled her close and Rose forgot everything around them. "It's us now", he had said. Us. Us.


	8. Harsh realities

Chapter 8

Harsh realities

 

"So? Oh, no nail polish after all?", Martha asked, as Rose and the Doctor exited the TARDIS in time to leave for the party. To her big surprise, Rose immediately blushed, while the Doctor's ears turned a deep, bright red.

"Ahm, no. Something came up.", Rose tried to explain, when Martha looked at her suspiciously.

"Something came up.", Martha repeated dumbly and the Doctor opted for on of his usual, smooth subject changes: "So... where exactly is this party?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Doctor, stop fidgeting with your bow-tie.", Rose reprimanded the Doctor a little while later, when all three of them walked towards Lazarus Laboratories in full evening attire.

"I can't help it.", he told her uncomfortably, "Every time I wear this, something bad happens. Really."

"We've been through this, remember? It's not the tux. It's you.", Martha reminded him, "Anyway, it looks good on you. Very James Bond, right?"

"True.", stated Rose and grinned cheekily, "Makes me all weak in the knees and stuff."

"Really?", the Doctor asked, sounding incredibly smug, "James Bond, mh?"

"And stuff?", Martha whispered in Rose's ear, "What exactly does that even mean?"

Rose couldn't help it and blushed again, which seemed to be enough of an answer to Martha. "Ah," she said, "Something came up, all right."

Thankfully Rose was prevented from answering verbally, when the trio reached the entrance and Martha produced her invite and the Doctor his psychic paper, which prompted the porter to straighten up and puff his chest out, before he bowed while holding the door open for Rose.

"Wow!", Martha said, "What the hell did that weird paper say this time?"

"No idea", confessed the Doctor, smiling proudly, "But it works marvellously."

Together they enter the huge, open room full of guest mingling about. The middle is occupied by what looked like an enormous shower cabin with for posts around it, but before the Doctor could launch into speculations, a waiter walked past them, effectively distracting him: "Oh, look, they've got nibbles!", he told them happily and grabbed two at ones, "I love nibbles." and with that he shoved one into his mouth and chewed away happily.

"I know, Doctor, I know. Believe me.", Rose assured him with mock-seriousness and patted his arm lightly, causing Martha to laugh out loud.

"Hello.", said a young woman behind them, that Rose recognized almost immediately as Martha's sister from the news.

"Tish!", Martha confirmed and hugged her sister enthusiastically.

"You look great!", Tish told Martha, "So, what do you think? Impressive, isn't it?"

"Very.", Martha smiled, in a slightly mocking tone.

"And two nights out in a row for you. That's dangerously close to a social life.", Tish had apparently picked up on her sister poking fun at her and retaliated in kind.

"If I keep this up, I'll end up in all the gossip columns."

"You might, actually. You should keep an eye out for photographers. And Mum, she's coming too. Even dragging Leo along with her."

"Leo in black tie? That I must see.", Martha laughed and then seemed to remember that she and her sister were being pretty rude, "Oh, this is Rose and, er, the Doctor.", she introduced them, stumbling over a way to say the Doctor's name without making him sound like a lunatic.

"Hello.", the answered in unison, earning a confused look from Tish: "Oh, but how did they get in? They are not on the list."

"Actually, we are.", Rose told her confidently, choosing the bold way out of this.

"But...", Tish started up again, when the Doctor interrupted her: "So, this Lazarus, he's your boss?"

That seemed to distract Tish for the moment, who told them proudly: "Professor Lazarus, yes. I'm part of his executive staff."

"She's in the PR department.", Martha explained pretty contemptuously.

"I'm head of the PR department, actually.", Tish contradicted her vehemently, making Martha look at her in disbelieve: "You're joking."

"I put this whole thing together.", Tish confirmed, sounding rather smug, thought Rose.

"And it looks great.", Rose told her quickly in hopes of stopping the two sisters from continuing their banter, since the Doctor had started to nervously shift from one foot to the other with impatience.

"So, do you know what the professor's going to be doing tonight? That looks like it might be a sonic micro-field manipulator.", the Doctor asked, eager to get one with investigating. Or out of this tux. Rose wasn't sure, which was more likely. Probably the tux.

Martha and Tish both looked at him for a moment, as if trying to figure out what he'd just said, before Tish said: "He's a science geek. I should have known. Got to get back to work now. I'll catch up with you later.", and she fled across the room, presumably to avoid admitting that she had know idea.

"Science geek?", the Doctor asked Martha suspiciously, "What does that mean?"

Rose had to suppress a smile, when Martha tried to come up with an explanation, that did not sound offending: "That you're obsessively enthusiastic about it."

"Oh, that's nice.", the Doctor smiled happily, when Rose patted his arm again and said: "And true, so very true. Although you are geeky in a lot of ways."

"Nothing wrong with that, right?", he asked her, smiling proudly.

"No. Nothing at all.", Rose confirmed with a smile, leaned over and gave the Doctor a fond little kiss, before realizing that Martha was standing right beside them, but she needn't have worried, since Martha had apparently just spotted her mother and brother and didn't even notice the new intimacy between them, when she all but ran over to throw herself into her mother's arms. Rose and the Doctor followed more slowly and in time to hear Martha tell her brother: "You're looking good, Leo."

"Yeah. If anyone asks me to fetch them a drink, I'll swing for him.", Leo answered, clearly uncomfortable.

"You disappeared last night.", Mrs Jones stated suspiciously, her eyes travelling towards Rose and the Doctor, who stood behind Martha and tried to smile politely.

"I just went home.", Martha told her, sounding extremely guilty.

"On your own?", her mother asked, no examining the Doctor closely, who was as usual completely oblivious about the real things said around him. Rose however wasn't and in a defiant motion, she lifted her head higher and leaned a little into the Doctor, who seemed agreeably surprised and placed his left hand protectively on her hip.

Martha gave a funny little squeak, that caused her mother and Leo to stare at her in shock.

"Sorry.", she told them quickly, "Mum, Leo. These are the Doctor and Rose Tyler, friends of mine."

'Ahhh,' thought Rose, 'Martha has figured out a way to introduce the Doctor. Great, now we sound married.'

"Nice to meat you.", Leo shook Rose's hand and then the Doctor's, "You all right, mate?"

Mrs Jones on the other didn't look happy to see them at all, her eyes still piercing into them warily.

"It's lovely to meet you, Mrs Jones.", the Doctor used his best, most winning smile, "Heard a lot about you."

"Have you? What have you heard, then?", Mrs Jones answered, effectively freezing the Doctor's happy expression into a pretty helpless one: "Oh, you know...", he trailed of,sending a pleading look towards Rose, who was admittedly having to much fun watching him squirm to help any time soon, "That you're Martha's mother and... Er... No, actually, That's about it. We haven't had much time to chat. You know... been busy." Rose could have slapped her forehead in frustration. Or his.

"Busy?", Mrs Jones repeated, sounding almost mockingly now herself, whereas Martha and Leo looked deeply embarrassed by their mother's behaviour, "Doing what, exactly?"

"Work.", Rose interrupted, finally being fed up with Mrs Jones' insinuations, "On sonic micro-field manipulators."

Mrs Jones looked at her as if she was seeing Rose for the first time, who just continued to smile politely.

Thankfully Professor Lazarus chose exactly that moment to enter the small podium in front of the weird shower (or sonic micro-field manipulator) and tapped his glass to secure the crowd's attention.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Professor Richard Lazarus and tonight I am going to perform a miracle. It is, I believe, the most important advance since Rutherford split the atom, the biggest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon. Tonight, you will watch and wonder. Tomorrow, you will wake to a world, which will be changed forever.", and with that he stepped into the shower.

"Well, he's got the crazy speech down already.", Rose whispered into the Doctor's ear, who was watching the process in deep concentration and didn't even seem to hear her, when the weird columns suddenly started to rotate around the shower. "Really gotta stop calling it shower.", Rose mumbled to no one in particular, when a loud alarm sounded around them.

"Something's wrong.", the Doctor hissed, "It's overloading!" As if on cue, the computer controls started to spark and the Doctor rushed forward, the sonic screwdriver in hand and both Rose and Martha hot on his heels.

"Somebody stop him. Get him away from those controls!", an older woman shouted at the crowd, which was too confused to react, but the Doctor answered anyway: "If this thing goes up, it'll take the whole building with it. Is that what you want?!" And with that he pulled at a huge power-cable, effectively shutting the shower... ah, machine down.

Martha, ever the doctor, ran over to the cabin, to see what had happened to Lazarus, when it opened on its own accord and a young man staggered out, looked at the crowd staring at him in awe and proclaimed: "Ladies and gentlemen, I am Richard Lazarus. I am 76 years old and I am reborn!"

While everyone around them started cheering and clapping, Rose turned towards the Doctor and said: "That's something... new."

"Yes, it is.", the Doctor answered, a deep frown on his face, when Lazarus walked over to the excited press, posing and beaming like a superstar.

"How the hell does that work? And please, please don't say magnetic micro-field manipulator.", Rose pleated, when the Doctor opened his mouth to explain.

"It can't be the same guy. It's impossible. It must be a trick.", Martha said, as she walked over a moment later, her eyes still glued to the Professor.

"Oh, it's not a trick. I wish it were.", the Doctor answered, a dark, yet somewhat thoughtful expression on his face.

"What just happened, then? How did he do it?", Martha asked, now honestly curious.

"He just changed what it means to be human.", was the Doctor's only reply and Rose looked at him worriedly. Something was wrong, really wrong, she knew it and what was worse: She was pretty certain she knew what it was.

"Could it really work?", she asked him, "I mean really, really work?"

"But it already did, if the Doctor is right.", Martha answered, when the Doctor stayed suspiciously silent.

"I don't just mean for a little bit or something. I mean, will he age and then just walk into that shower again?", Rose pressed on, waiting for the Doctor to finally explain it to her, but he was still watching Lazarus intently, obviously avoiding her gaze.

"Oh no, just imagine that. I mean, it's weird.", Martha answered, a look of disdain on her face.

"Weird?", Rose asked.

"Yes, I mean: Who'd want that, really? It sounds nice, staying young and stuff, but isn't... I don't know... growing old together kinda one of the great things about... you know... living?", Martha explained, seemingly oblivious to the fact, that both Rose and the Doctor tensed up beside her. To her big surprise, the Doctor just walked over to where Lazarus stood eating nibbles almost as enthusiastically as the Doctor had done before.

"Energy deficit. Always happens with this kind of process.", he told Lazarus and the woman beside him, who Rose recognized as the shouting woman from before, calmly.

"You speak as if you see this every day, Mr...?", Lazarus answered, seeming only marginally interested in the Doctor.

"Doctor. And no, not every day, but I have some experience with this kind of transformation."

"That's not possible.", Lazarus answered snootily and half turned away, but the Doctor was not ready to give up yet: "Using hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance. That's inspired.", he told them, almost challenging, his eyes still glued on Lazarus' face and his fingers flexing strainedly. Rose took one of his hands in hers, holding it tight to reassure him and noticed how he closed his eyes for a moment, as if to gather strength, before he squeezed back.

"You understand the theory then.", Lazarus answered, now sounding a lot more interested in what the Doctor had to say, but clearly put out by his strange behaviour, as his eyes took in both Rose and Martha, sizing them up.

"Enough to know, that you could not possibly have allowed for all the variables.", the Doctor told him, his face now sounding worryingly strained.

"Doctor?", Rose asked him carefully, while leaning into him, making sure only he would hear, "Doctor?"

"No experiment is entirely without risk.", Lazarus replied, still eyeing the Doctor as if he was an interesting experiment himself.

The Doctor on the other hand seemed really angry about Lazarus' careless words, his eyes blazing as he almost shouted: "That thing nearly exploded, you might as well have stepped into a blender!"

"You are not qualified to comment.", the woman, who had stayed silent until then, tried to shut the Doctor up. A lot braver, than Rose would have thought.

"If I hadn't stopped it, it would have exploded. Killing every human inside this building!", the Doctor now really shouted. "Doctor...", Rose tried again, when people around them started to notice

that something was going on and the old woman motioned for security.

"Then I thank you, Doctor.", Lazarus told them calmly, shaking his head at the two security officers, that came up behind them, "But that's a simple engineering issue. What happened inside the capsule was exactly what was supposed to happen. No more, no less."

"You've got no way of knowing that until you've run proper tests.", Martha piqued up, after looking at the Doctor as if asking for permission to speak at all.

"Look at me. You can see what happened. I'm all the proof you need.", the Professor turned his gaze towards Martha, who, to Rose's utter surprise, smiled at him winningly.

"This device will be properly certified before we start to operate commercially.", the woman added, her eyes still fixed on the Doctor, although it had been Martha's question.

"Commercially?!", Martha exclaimed, "You are joking! That'll cause chaos."

"Not chaos, change. A chance for humanity to evolve, to improve."

"Improving?!", the Doctor spit out, "This is not about improving. This is about you and your costumers living a little longer."

"Not a little longer, Doctor. A lot longer, perhaps indefinitely.", Lazarus answered, smiling brightly and not the least bit concerned by the fact, that the Doctor looked positively murderous. His partner on the other hand seemed to realize it was time to leave. That or she was just bored of witnessing Lazarus openly flirt with Martha, Rose really wasn't sure: "Richard, we have things to discuss, upstairs."

"Goodbye, Doctor. In a few years, you'll look back and laugh at how wrong you were. Come back then, when you have grown old. Or that pretty girl, that you cling to so desperately."

Rose was just about to spit something right into his arrogant face, when she felt the Doctor next to her move forward. "Doctor. No!", she grabbed his hand even tighter, to hold him back, when the Professor kissed Martha's hand as a goodbye and walked off.

"Martha," Rose asked quietly, "could you, maybe... get some nibbles or something. I am suddenly starving."

Martha looked at the Doctor's stony face for a second, before she said: "Sure.", and hurried towards the buffet.

"Doctor...", Rose tried again and moved to stand directly in front of him.

He looked at her for a moment, the storm still raging behind his eyes, before he suddenly grinned widely and said: "Well, now we know how he did it. Where has Martha run of to again? Seriously, no running off, rule number 1!"

"Rule number 1 is: "the Doctor lies","Rose told him, simply refusing to let this go that easily.

"Is it? Really? My mistake.", he continued, still grinning manically and looking around for Martha, whom Rose could see watching them from afar.

"Doctor...", she tried again, getting really desperate know.

"Martha!", the Doctor said loudly and walked towards the buffet as well, simply dragging Rose along, although she really tried her best to stay where she was.

"Nibbles.", Martha told him bluntly, when the reached her and the Doctor took one, handing another over to Rose, who excepted it reluctantly.

"So?", asked Martha, "What do we do now?"

"Now? Well, I thing this building is full of laboratories. I say we make our own tests."

"Lucky I've just collected a DNA sample then, isn't it?", Martha smiled proudly and held out her hand.

"Martha, you're a star.", the Doctor told her and Rose smiled weakly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Having used the Doctor's psychic paper again, it only took them a laughably amount of time to sneak of to one of the many laboratories. The Doctor was crouched over a microscope, staring intently at Lazarus' DNA, with Martha hovering around him, anxious to get a look as well. Rose on the other hand didn't really think she'd be of any use with this particular part of their newest adventure, so she sat down on a chair and took of her high-heels to exchange them for the running shoes, she had put into her purse as a precaution.

"Amazing."

"What?", asked Martha, almost pushing the Doctor aside.

"Lazarus' DNA."

"I can't see anything different.", Martha sounded really disappointed, thought Rose.

"Look at it.", the Doctor urged her and grinned broadly, when Martha exclaimed: "Oh my God, did that just change? But it can't have."

"But it did.", the Doctor smiled, his gaze turning towards Rose, who was getting up and walking up to them, to see what was so hard to believe.

"It's impossible.", Martha insisted, making Rose roll her eyes. "Honestly, Martha, why haven't you erased that word from your vocabulary yet? I know, I did. Although the Doctor likes to call things impossible from time to time as well..."

"Well... sometimes the situation calls for impossible!", the Doctor protested.

"Obviously not, since it's not really impossible, is it?", countered Rose with a cheeky grin. Oh, how she loved to wind him up like that.

"Anyway...", Martha interrupted them, before the Doctor even got the chance to answer, "That means Lazarus has changed his own molecular patterns, right?"

"Hypersonic sound waves to destabilize the cell structure, then a meta-genic programme to manipulate the coding in the protein strands. Basically, he hacked into his own genes and instructed them to rejuvenate.", the Doctor explained, a thoughtful look on his face.

"But they're still mutating now.", Martha continued.

"Because he missed something. Something in his DNA has been activated and won't let him stabilize, Something that's trying to change him."

"Is that always going to happen or is it a thing that happened because something in his DNA in particular?", asked Rose, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, but obviously she was not going to fool the Doctor, who's head snapped around.

"Change him into what exactly, Doctor?", Martha interrupted again and Rose was now pretty sure, that she was deliberately trying to stop them from talking about the proverbial elephant in the room.

"I don't know.", admitted the Doctor, his eyes still trained on Rose and a cold shutter ran over her back. Was it Martha's question he was answering, her own or both?, "But I think, we'll need to find out."

"The woman said, they were going upstairs."

"Then that's where we're going."


	9. A bang and I whimper

Chapter 9

A Bang and a Whimper

 

"Where are you going?!", shouted Rose, as the Doctor headed towards the stairs.

He stopped dead and turn around to look between her and the stairs with a suspicious look, as if he was afraid he was missing something vital.

"The stairs...", he began carefully, looking at Rose, as if she might jump at him, "To get to Lazarus' office..."

"Martha is in heels, Doctor. Let's take the elevator, yeah? And safe the running for life and death situations.", Rose told him at the exact moment a loud "ping" announced the elevators arrival.

"And why couldn't Martha choose running shoes, like us. Good sensible shoes. Good for running. Comfortable. Nice looking. Really. if you think about it..."

"Doctor.", Rose interrupted him sharply, when Martha cringed visibly, "Martha just hasn't been around long enough to carry a second pair with her. Now stop complaining and step into the elevator."

"Fine.", he wined, making both women grin fondly, "But if there is stupid music, I'll..." He didn't get to finish that sentence, when the doors closed in front of them, and a cheery, happy sort of music started to play.

Rose and Martha both started to laugh loudly, whereas the Doctor looked like Christmas had been canceled, as they rode up to the top floor and hopefully Lazarus' office.

"Are we even sure, his office is all the way up?", Martha spoke up for the first time.

"He's the boss. And he's a show off. His office will be all the way up.", Rose assured her and when they stepped outside and into a large, windowy office, Martha admitted: "This is his office, all right."

"So where is he?", asked the Doctor, looking around with interested.

"No idea. But I'm pretty sure he was here.", Rose informed the gloomily, pointing over to the desk.

"Is that a leg? Is that Lady Thaw's leg?", breathed Martha, walking over to the corpse to have a closer look.

"Lady Thaw? Was that the shouting woman's name?", Rose asked and backed off a little more. Nothing to do here for her, that was more Martha's and the Doctor's specialty.

"Used to be.", the Doctor informed them and crouched down beside what was left of Lady Thaw, "Now it's just a shell. She had all the life energy drained. Like squeezing the juice out of an orange."

"Really, Doctor? Orange juice. Another food I'll never be able to have again.", Rose told him dryly.

"Lazarus, did he do this to her?", Martha interjected, obviously more concerned with the whole killing thing, than Rose's breakfast choices.

"Could be.", the Doctor answered before looking up at Rose and grinning, "You could always go with banana juice, like me. Bananas are..."

"Good.", Rose finished for him and grinned brightly.

"Hate to interrupt your totally cute moment here guys, but does this mean he's changed already?"

The Doctor and Rose continued to stare at each other for a moment, before the Doctor finally stood up and answered Martha's question: "Not necessarily. You saw the DNA. It was fluctuating, The process must demand energy, This might not have been enough."

"So he'll do it again.", Rose sighed and looked at Lady Thaw sadly. He really hadn't liked that woman, but that was kind of besides the point, "Back to the lift then, and down to the reception."

The Doctor groaned reluctantly, as the girls headed towards the elevator again, but his mood brightened significantly, when Rose took his hand to make sure he'd follow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I can't see him.", Martha informed them, craning her neck in different directions.

"He can't be far. Keep looking.", the Doctor told them, looking around frantically.

"I don't think he's here.", Rose mused, "He'd be pretty hard to miss. Likes to draw attention, that one."

Before anyone could response to that, Leo stepped in front of them and said: "Hey, you all right, Marth? I think Mum wants to talk to you."

"Have you seen Lazarus anywhere?", Martha totally ignored what he'd said.

Leo looked a little hurt at Martha's dismissal, but answered nonetheless: "Yeah, well, he was getting cozy with Tish a couple of minutes ago."

"With Tish?!", finally Martha turned her full attention onto her little brother, and to his discomfort: So did Rose and the Doctor. Right on time to be joined by Martha's mother, who looked at them as if she was preparing for battle.

"Ah, Doctor.", Francine started, but the Doctor rudely ignored her, grabbing Leo's arm: "Where did they go?"

"Upstairs, I think. Why?", Leo answered, looking really confussed now.

"Doctor...", Francine started again, but the Trio stormed forward as if on cue, the Doctor unceremoniously bumping into her and spilling her drink all over.

Rose could here her shout something after them, but she was too preoccupied with getting back to the elevator again to listen... or care.

They stormed inside, waiting impatiently for the lift to carry them up again. The music wasn't helping.

"Where are they?", Martha shouted frantically, when they reached the empty office.

"Fluctuating DNA will give off an energy signature. I might be able to pick it up.", the Doctor told them triumphantly, while getting out his sonic screwdriver.

"Couldn't you have come up with that during the elevator ride?", asked Rose in frustration.

"Got him!"

"Where?!"

The Doctor frowned, as he pointed his screwdriver upwards.

"But... this is the top floor... the roof!", Martha shouted and off they ran. Towards the stairs this time.

They arrived in time to see Lazarus and Tish standing suspiciously close to each other and Tish's hand on his cheek.

"I'm still adjusting myself. I've been working toward it for so many years, it's hard to believe the moment finally arrived.", Lazarus told Tish, as the three eavesdroppers silently came up behind them, careful not to alert the two to their presents.

"And is it like you expected?", Tish asked him softly, her eyes wide in wonder.

What are we waiting for?, thought Rose and looked up to the Doctor, who's eyes were glued to the couple in front of him. She looked over at Martha, who seemed to itch to grab her sister's hand and run, but seemed afraid to do anything without the Doctor.

"I find that nothing is ever exactly like you expect. There's always something to surprise you. Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act..."

"Falls the shadow.", the Doctor finished for him and stepped forward.

Inwardly Rose groaned. Had this been what they had waited for? A cool look-at-me-I'm-so-clever entrance for the Doctor?

The pair in front of them turned to look at them in shock, but Lazarus recovered a lot quicker than Tish, who gave Martha a murderous look of betrayal.

"So the mysterious Doctor knows his Eliot. I'm impressed.", Lazarus told them, looking wearily at the Doctor, who had stepped in front of Rose as if to shield her. Come to think of it, Rose was sure, that was exactly what he was doing. Being all protective again. She couldn't remember the last time he'd been like that, but it had probably still included a leather jacket.

Martha meanwhile had grabbed her sister's hand and dragged her away from Lazarus, who only gave her a secondary glance, his eyes still trained on the "mysterious Doctor".

"Martha, what are you doing here?", Tish hissed at her sister, struggling to get free.

"Tish, get away from him.", Martha went in full on protective mode (which seemed to be a theme right now).

"What? Don't tell me what to do!", huffed Tish, making Rose suddenly greatfull to be an only child.

"Orgh.", she whispered to the Doctor, "Domestics."

And despite the serious mood, she could see a small smile, before he turned his attention back to Lazarus and did his best to ignore the quarreling sisters.

"I wouldn't have thought you had time for poetry, Lazarus. What with you being busy defying the laws of nature and all."

"You're right, Doctor. One lifetime's been too short for me to do everything I'd like. How much more I'll get done in two or three or four."

"Doesn't work like that. Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters. It's the person."

And Rose felt his hand tighten around her's reassuringly, feeling a little, as if this sentence had been for her alone. It didn't matter how long they'd have. They'd make it count. She knew it. He knew it.

"But if it's the right person, what a gift that would be.", Lazarus tried to explain himself and Rose thought for a moment, if maybe he wasn't just trying to convince the Doctor. Maybe deep down, he knew what he was doing was wrong.

"Or what a curse. Look at what you've done to yourself.", the Doctor told him sadly.

"Who are you to judge me?!", Lazarus almost yelled. Angry now, like a child, who needed approvel from a father and didn't get it. He seemed to shake in anger... shake?!

Rose made a cautious step backwards, pulling the Doctor along, as Lazarus started to shake violently, still unnoticed my the arguing sisters.

"Martha!", Rose gave a warning shout, as Lazarus fell to the ground.

Right on cue, Lazarus rose again, this time looking like... what? Rose wasn't sure, but it seemed to put an end to the Jones' family crises, as both sisters turned around and started running, making the Doctor's trademark "Run!" fairly redundant.

The three women sprinted through as the Doctor soniced the door shut behind them. Running down the stairs to get back to the top level, they came to an abrupt stop in front of the elevators.

"Are you okay?", Martha asked her sister, who panted hard and looked at them with shocked eyes: "I was going to snog him."

With a loud bang, Lazarus crashed into the roof-door, leaving a visible imprint. The lights around them start to flicker and a booming computer voice announced: "Security one. Security one. Security one.", as the lights switch off and the doors around them start to close.

"What's happening?"

"An intrusion.", Tish tried to answer her sister's question over the noise of the computer system, "It triggers a security lock-down. Kills most of the power. Stops the lifts, seals the exit."

"Doctor, NOW it's time to take the stairs!", Rose shouted at him and the group quickly abandoned the lift, hoping to reach the ground floor before Lazarus managed to break through the door. They almost made it, before they heard a loud growl from overhead, amplified by the echo inside the stairwell.

"He's inside!", Martha needlessly informed them, but Rose refrained from commenting, instead running even faster and being really, really great-full for her running-shoes.

Out of breath and seemingly out of place at a party like that, the four almost fell into the reception room as they finally reached the ground floor.

"Tish, is there another way out of here?", the Doctor asked hurriedly scanning the room again.

"There's an exit in the corner, but it'll be locked now."

The Doctor turned to Rose and handed her his sonic screwdriver and squeezed her hand one last time, before he turned around and shouted: "Martha, Tish, help me get them out."

But Rose didn't waste any attention on them right now. Over two years of traveling with the Doctor had taken it's toll. She ran over to the exit Tish had pointed at and set the screwdriver to setting 54, having used that particular one more times than she cared to remember.

A loud crash and screams behind her, alert Rose to the fact that Lazarus has arrived, but she can only concentrate on the one thing then. Breathing a sigh of relief, she opened the door and turned around to shout: "Over here! Through the door, everyone, now!"

As people start to run towards her, Rose saw the Doctor standing on his own a few meters away from Martha and her mother, who where crouching next to Leo, Lazarus eying them hungryly.

"Lazarus! Leave them alone!"

Lazarus gaze fell on the Doctor and he and Rose started running at the same time.

"What's the point? You can't control it. The mutation's too strong. Killing those people won't help you. You're a fool!", the Doctor taunted Lazarus, who roared in anger, leaving Rose far behind. What the hell was the Doctor doing?!

But Rose knew what he was doing. Taunting him. Goating him. To get him away from Martha and her family. To get him away from her.

"A vain old man who thought he could defy nature. Only Nature got her own back, didn't she? You're a joke, Lazarus! A footnote in the history of failure!, the Doctor continued and ran towards a nearby corridor, to lead the monster away from the people still inside.

"Rose!", Martha screamed, "What...?", but before she could finish her question, Rose ran bast her, trowing the sonic screwdriver in her general direction and followed the Doctor and Lazarus.

Rose followed the general direction of distraction inside the corridor when a loud BOOM sounded not far ahead from her. Panicked, she tried to run even fast. Begging, pleading with every deity in existence, that he hadn't managed to blow himself up, only to run headfirst into the Doctor, who caught her and hugged her tightly for a split second, before he held her at arms length and asked: "What are you doing her? You were supposed to get out."

"Without you? No chance."

"Can't you once, just once, do as I..." Wham!

Someone (and Rose had a pretty good idea who) had crashed into her from behind, propelling her back into the Doctor's waiting arms.

"Guys!, no time for cuddling!", Martha declared loudly.

"Martha, what are YOU doing her as well?", the Doctor asked her disbelievingly.

"Returning this.", she told him and held up the screwdriver.

"How did you even find me?"

"Followed the destruction.", Rose stated.

"Followed the explosion.", Martha chimed in.

"Two safe signs of your presents.", Rose grinned.

A loud roar was heard from behind them and as if on cue, they all started running again.

"I had hoped you had blown it up!", Martha yelled.

"More sort of annoyed him, I'd say.", the Doctor answered.

"That, too, is a sign of your presence.", Rose laughed.

"Oi!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When they reached the reception room a while later, it was finally empty.

"What now? We can't run around in circles forever.", Martha panted and looking down Rose realized that somewhere along the way the must have downed her shoes and was now barefoot.

"We can't lead him outside, either.", the Doctor answered and his gaze fell on the shower... ah... sonic microfield manipulator.. what ever, "Come on, get in."

The three of them squeezed into the way to small chamber, closing it behind them.

"Are we hiding?", Martha asked, sounding slightly breathless.

"No, he knows we're here. But this is his masterpiece. I bet he won't destroy it. Not even to get us.", the Doctor assured them and Rose started to giggle into his tux.

"What?", the Doctor and Martha asked at the same time.

"Oh", Rose answered, "This is priceless."

"What is?"

"I can just imagine Jack's reaction to the three of us being in here together.

"Who's Jack?", asked Martha, when the Doctor didn't answer. Strange, Rose thought, are jokes about Jack not alowed, or something? She would have loved to see the Doctor's face, but Martha's head was practically resting on her shoulder, so moving her head up was out of the question.

"Rose, can you reach the screwdriver?", the Doctor asked her calmly.

"I can try. Give me a moment.", she answered and tried to slip her hand into the pockets of his tux.

"What is the plan, Doctor?", Martha asked from behind them.

"The plan was to get inside here.", the Doctor informed her curtly.

"And know we are trapped.", stated Martha.

"Not trapped. Just safe. For a moment.", Rose tried to help the Doctor out and finally managed to get a hold of the sonic screwdriver, which took her a moment to maneuver up to the Doctor's waiting hand.

"Now I need to get down to that panel.", he informed them.

"Down. Really? Are you kidding? Martha can't even breathe properly.", Rose answered.

We are kind of running out of options here.", the Doctor tried to convince the two very bemused women.

"Fine, but I think I might have to sit on your back.", Rose told him.

"Excuse me?!", the Doctor started at her.

"Me. Sitting. On your back. Otherwise their won't be enough space."

"Rose is right. It should work.", Martha chimed in.

It didn't take as long, as Rose had feared to get to Doctor working on the wires behind the panel, but they could hear Lazarus outside.

All around them the machine started to come to life, humming with energy.

"Ahm, Doctor...", Rose began.

"Working on it.", came the muffled response.

"What's happening?", Martha asked, her voice hitching in fear.

"Sounds like he switched the machine on.", the Doctor answered.

"Oh oh."

"Quite right, Rose. I was hoping it would take him a little bit longer to work it out."

"Not to hurry you or anything, but.."

"I know, I know. Nearly done", the Doctor assured them.

"What exactly are you nearly done with?", asked Rose, as the chamber started to rotate around them.

"I'm trying to set the capsule to reflect energy rather than receive it."

"Will that kill him?", Martha asked almost hopefully.

"When he transforms, he's three times his size. Cellular triplication. So he's spreading himself thin."

"That wasn't a real answer, was it?"

"We're going to end up like him!", Martha panicked.

"Two of us, maybe. Not sure what will happen to the Doctor.", Rose informed her dryly, "Maybe his nose and ears will start to grow again."

"What? Why?", Martha forgot her panic for a moment to stare at Rose in confusion.

"Done!", exclaimed the Doctor, there was a loud bang, the chamber stopped moving and the door opened, allowing the trio inside to fall out rather ungracefully.

"Ham, I really thought that was it.", Martha breathed heavily.

"Nah, we've had worse.", Rose told her calmly and followed the Doctor, who had walked over to a naked human figure, lying face-down on the floor.

"Oh God, he seems so human again. Almost pitiful.", Martha whispered sadly.

"Eliot saw that, too. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper."


	10. There was a clue in that name

Chapter 10

There was a clue in that name

 

It took the the ambulance and police a surprisingly short time to arrive at the scene and Rose thought they would have asked a lot of questions... but they didn't. They covered Lazarus in a red blanket and took him to the ambulance, leaving Rose, the Doctor and Martha standing around trying to look inconspicuous.

Rose took that moment to catch her breath, it had been a long and emotionally draining day.

"Are you okay?", the Doctor asked her quietly, carefully touching her arm, as if trying to reassure himself that she was really there.

"I'm fine.", she smiled tied-lipped at him, but before she could breach the subject she so desperately wanted to discuss with him, their short moment of peace was interrupted by large parts of Martha's family.

"She's here! Oh, she's all right!", Tish called and forcefully embraced Martha, who looked startled for a moment. Martha's mother on the other hand headed directly towards the Doctor, who tried to hide his uneasiness by smiling brightly and saying: "Ah, Mrs. Jones. We still haven't finished our chat."

Francine didn't even slow down until she came to stand in front of the Doctor and slapped him hard across the face, hissing: "Keep away from my daughter."

"Mum! What are you doing?!", Martha asked in shock, but this time Rose was quicker.

"Oi, Lady! Who the hell do you think you are? There is only one woman, who is allowed to slap the Doctor and that sure isn't you!", Rose seethed, forcing Francine to take notice of her for the very first time. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Martha and her sister stare at her open-mouthed, but she really didn't care.

"You should stay away from him, too.", Francine informed her angrily, "He's dangerous. I've been told things."

"Oh yeah? I'd really like to know who you trust more than your daughter then. Because Martha clearly trusts us. Maybe YOU should trust your daughter, instead of accusing someone like that."

"Look around you! Nothing but death and destruction.", Mrs Jones argued, at which point Rose really got angry. The Doctor had done everything he could, nothing, really nothing of this was his fault. And here Mrs Jones stood, trying to lay blame on him.

"It isn't his fault!", Martha finally chimed up, moving closer to her two friends. Together they were almost building a wall in front of the Doctor, who had stayed curiously quite, clearly unsure what to say.

"And it was Tish who invited everyone to this thing in the first place. I'd say technically it's all her fault.", Leo tried to diffuse the situation and Rose gave him a small, grateful smile.

Tish opened her mouth as well, when there was a loud crash behind them and the Doctor simply took Rose's hand, turned around and left the Jones family standing there awkwardly. Well, Rose thought, that's one way of dealing with this.

They reached the source of the loud crash a moment later, the ambulance, that had taken Lazarus away.

It's back was open and only drained corpses were left of the poor people inside.

"Lazarus. Back from the dead. Should have known really.", the Doctor told her gloomily and started to scan their surroundings.

"There was a clue in that name, yes."

"Where did he go?", Martha asked next to Rose, who almost jumped in surprise and turned around to see both Martha and her sister standing behind her. Mh, she thought with a small, happy smile, maybe those two bickering sisters were a lot more alike, than they liked to admit.

"That way.", the Doctor answered Martha's question and pointed down the street, "The church."

"Cathedral.", Tish corrected him quietly, "It's Southwark Cathedral. He told me."

They walked up to the cathedral after that, but Martha didn't seem convinced: "Do you really think he's in here?", she asked nervously, as they entered quietly.

"Where would you go, if you were looking for sanctuary?", the Doctor answered, his voice now laced with pity and an understanding, that almost broke Rose's heart. She took his hand again and smiled up at him reassuringly. He tried to smile back, but he'd never again be able to hide his pain from her. Not anymore. He'd let her past his barriers earlier that day and there really wasn't a way back now... for either of them.

They finally saw Lazarus a moment later, crouched behind the alter, wrapped in his red blanket and shivering violently.

"I came here before. A lifetime ago. I thought I was going to die then. In fact, I was sure of it. I sat there, just a child, the sound of planes and bombs outside.", he told them almost inaudibly.

Lazarus wasn't really speaking to them anymore, Rose was sure. A shiver ran down her spine at his words. She remembered. The noise. The desperation. Lonely children coming out, fighting starvation. And Jack. Everybody lived. That day. At least for them.

"The Blitz.", she breathed, her voice hitching slightly and Lazarus actually turned his gaze upon her. Really seeing her, Rose was sure now, not just as a pretty woman, but a real person.

"You've read about it.", he stated simply, but there was a slight hint of doubt in his voice. He knew something was off about the way she said it, the way she clang to the Doctor.

"We were there.", the Doctor corrected him, when Rose just kept looking, lost in thoughts. The Jones' sisters both shifted nervously next to them, unsure what to do.

"You're too young.", Lazarus' simply replied, still looking at Rose, his gaze never wavering from her face.

"So are you.", the Doctor answered, almost a painful laugh in his voice.

Lazarus laughed as well, his body cracking in a way, that made Rose wince. It sounded painful, unnatural.

"In the morning the fires had died and I was still alive. I swore I'd never face death like that again. So defenceless. I would arm myself. Fight back. Defeat it.", Lazarus explained quickly, now looking at Rose in a pleading way. He needed her to know, to understand, Rose realized. He needed someone, anyone really, to tell him it would be okay.

"I do.", Rose told him, her voice sounding unnaturally loud inside the quit cathedral. Lazarus didn't even blink, but the others turned around to look at her in confusion.

"Do what?", Martha asked carefully.

"Understand.", Rose said, willing Lazarus to understand, too, "I understand why you did it. I understand. But you have to stop now. Have to let go."

"No. I can't.", he told her, "I did it. I managed. I won. I changed the course of history."

The Doctor tried to hold her back, but Rose didn't care. She crouched down beside Lazarus and looked into his eyes.

"No, you haven't. You killed them. Lady Thaw. Those poor people in the ambulance."

"They were nothing! I changed history", he hissed again. A mantra, to convince himself, but Rose could feel the shift inside his voice as another shudder ran over his body.

"Any of them might have done, too.", the Doctor said, steel beneath his soft voice, "Facing death is part of being human. You can't change that."

"No, Doctor. Avoiding death, that's being human. It's our strongest impulse, to cling to life with every fibre of being. I'm only doing what everyone before me has tried to do. I've simply been more successful."

"It's not, you know? Every humans strongest impulse. I've seen a lot of things. A lot of people. In the end, it's not their own life, that matters the most. It's the people. The ones around them. The ones they love. The ones too weak to help themselves. I've seen it. I'm sure you have, too.", Rose told him quietly, thinking of Jack again. The con-man, who was ready to lay down his life when it really mattered. She had thought about him so often today and missed him terribly.

"Maybe I'm more than an ordinary human now!", Lazarus whole body convulsed terribly again and the Doctor tried to pull Rose up and away. "There is no such thing as an ordinary human.", he told Lazarus, as if it was the simplest truth in the universe. Maybe it was. For him.

Rose and the Doctor were almost fighting now, as he was desperately trying to get her away from Lazarus, but she wouldn't budge. She could talk to him, she simply knew it. He wasn't a monster, not really. He was a scared, frightened little boy. His mind still stuck in the Blitz. It didn't matter who old, educated or important he was, he needed what everyone did in the end: A hand to hold.

"He's changing again.", the Doctor hissed in her ear, now pulling at both her hands and Rose finally relented and got up. Behind her, she could hear Lazarus changing and saw the Doctor's eyes widen. He was worried Lazarus would attack her, but Rose was sure he really wouldn't.

"Rose, no!", the Doctor shouted at her, as she turned back around to look up at the now changed Lazarus, who had raised his claws, ready to strike at her.

"Go ahead then. If you can truly life with that. Take me. Kill me and let my friends be, because THAT is being human.", Rose simply told Lazarus, looking up at into his inhuman eyes.

He charged forward, claws raised... and then stopped mid-motion. Rose vaguely heard the Doctor next to her breathe out in anticipation, but she needed to concentrate on Lazarus now, she had him, she was sure, she could convince him.

"You don't need to be scared anymore. It's all right. Just let go."

Lazarus didn't move, didn't speak, just looked at her face, gaze never wavering. His whole body was shaking again, but his eyes stayed on her.

"It's okay.", she told him once more and then stretched out her hand to touch what was once is left hand, "It's okay."

Lazarus gave a strangled, almost whimpery sound and fell down as if he were a puppet, whos strings were cut.

Rose remained rooted in her place, the Doctor standing like a statue beside her. It was quite, as they all looked down at the creature at their feet.

"What happened?", Tish asked behind Rose, her voice quite, scared and almost awed. Rose had totally forgotten that she was still there.

Lazarus' body shivered again and they all jumped in surprise, fearing he'd get up to attack them, but his body simply shifted back to its human form. Not the young, changed man. But his true, real form of an old man.

"He's dead. Truly, really dead, this time.", Rose said, looking at him in shock.

"Yes. It must have taken him a lot of energy not to attack you when he was so hungry. A lot of energy. He starved.", the Doctor explained, his own voice sounding just as shocked as Rose felt.

"How did you know he wouldn't kill you?", Martha asked and looked at Rose, as if she was really seeing her for the very first time.

"I just knew.", Rose stated simply and walked over to cover Lazarus' body again with the red blanket, that now lay behind him.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They went back to Martha's apartment after that in silence. Everyone lost in their own thoughts. Rose hardly noticed when they reached Martha's front door. Only when she saw the TADRDIS in front of her did she realize where they were.

"You still sure?", Rose asked Martha quietly, as the Doctor opened the TARDIS-door.

"More than ever.", Martha affirmed and smiled sadly at Rose, "But you guys finally talked it out, didn't you?"

Rose's only answer was to smile brightly.

"Here we are then.", the Doctor reappeared behind them.

"Yeah, Martha, hand over your phone, will you?", Rose asked grinning happily.

"Sure.", Martha answered and handed it over to Rose, who quickly added her number to Martha's contacts.

"If you ever need anything or... you know, just want to talk... it was nice having someone to talk around.", Rose told her and gave the phone back to its owner.

"Someone to talk to? What am I then?", the Doctor asked, sounding really affronted.

"A bloke.", both women answered in unison and laughed at his dumbfounded expression.

"You can always come and visit, you know? And if it's just for a nice cup of tea. Let the Doctor tinker in the TARDIS a bit and we'll talk about... everything really.", Martha told her, as the two women hugged goodbye.

"I will.", Rose answered happily. It would be so nice to have someone to talk to again, a mate.

"And you: Take her on a date or something.", Martha told the Doctor, before hugging him as well, "It was so great to meet you guys and I'll never forget it."

"Well, of course not.", the Doctor grinned, "And it was a pleasure having you on board."

"Until another time, Martha!", Rose smiled, as they entered the TADIS and she closed the door behind her.

"Where to?", the Doctor asked her giddily.

"Bed.", came Rose's reply and the Doctor simply nodded, throwing them into the vortex.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rose had almost dozed off, the Doctor's double heartbeat underneath her head lulling her into much needed sleep after the draining day they'd both had. Physically and emotionally.

The Doctor's left arm was draped around her, holding her close to him. As if he was afraid to lose her. Which was actually quite the truth, Rose knew, she had scared him today.

"I thought about it.", his low voice sounded muffled.

"Me, too.", she admitted.

"I'd never have to lose you."

"And I'd never have to leave you."

They stayed silent again after that for a while, both realizing just how much more had just been said between them.

"The turning into an energy-sucking scorpion part is kind of a no-go, though.", Rose tried to lighten the mood.

"Oh, I don't know... I could get used to that.", the Doctor answered, his chest beneath her ear vibrating in silent laughter.

"I'd probably turn into another Cassandra... There's a wrinkle! Quick, Doctor, get me into the weird shower!", Rose laughed happily.

"Oh no, you are not that vain.", the Doctor assured her, still laughing.

"Well, I do have a prominent chin. It is sticking out quite a bit."

"Rose... ", the Doctor abruptly changed the subject, "How about some chips tomorrow? My treat."

"Are you asking me out on a date? To eat chips?", Rose raised her head to look into the Doctor's somewhat nervous face.

"Well... yes... no... yes, actually I am.", he squirmed, "But this time, I'll have the money. I won't be a cheap date."

"Then I'll have to say yes, of course."smiled up at him brightly.

"Right.", the Doctor said and they fell silent again, drifting of to sleep slowly.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Unsurprisingly a date with the Doctor was never as easy as one would hope and they ended up running for their lives. Again.

Well, at least they were consistent, Rose thought with a smile, as they drove down a street in the outskirts of London, quiver and bow strung across their shoulders and as always a deadline looming in-front of them.

"Sorry about the interrupted date.", the Doctor mumbled next to her, giving her a careful look, as if he was afraid she'd be angry.

"Not your fault the chippy sold alien eggs in the back now, was it?", she smiled at him, "Besides, this is nice, too. The taxi makes a comfortable change to the usual running."

"If we don't get there soon, we'll have to run the rest."

"Not the point.", she told him stubbornly, as the both exited the taxi and start their fairly quick walk down the street.

"Doctor! Doctor! Rose!", a voice shouted behind them and the both turned around.

"Hello, sorry, bit of a rush.", the Doctor told the young woman coming to stand in front of them, "There's a sort of thing happening. Fairly important we stop it."

"My God, it's you, it's really you! Oh, you don't remember me, do you?", she told them, looking really disappointed and Rose tried desperately to remember, if she knew her from somewhere.

"Must have been a while, too.", the woman continued with a thoughtful look towards Rose, "You're not..." and then she simply stopped, her eyes widening in realization.

"Rose isn't what?", the Doctor asked, their alien eggs obviously totally forgotten.

"Doctor...", Rose warned him, but the woman continued again: "Oh my God, of course! You're time-travellers. It hasn't happened to you yet! It's still in your future."

"What hasn't happened yet?", the Doctor urged her, his worried eyes on Rose again.

Stop worrying, she wanted to tell him, please stop worrying all the time. But she knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

"It was me. Oh, for God's sake, it was me all along. You got it all from me!", the woman looked really relieved, Rose noted, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"Got what?", the Doctor asked.

"Okay, listen: One day you're going to get stuck in 1969. Make sure you've got this with you. You're going to need it.", the woman said, smiling proudly and hands him a thick folder he absent-mindedly stuffed into his oversized pocket.

"What's your name?", he asked, a calculating look in his brown eyes.

"Sally Sparrow.", she answered proudly and both the Doctor and Rose smiled at her.

"Nice to meet you, Sally Sparrow. Sorry, but Rose and I need to dash. Running again. Always end up doing that... well, I say always, but..."

"Doctor!"

"Yes, right. Bye!", and with that they both ran down the street.


	11. Another distress signal

Chapter 11

Another Distress Signal

 

Life inside the TARDIS settled into quite the comfortable routine after that. At least for a while. The Doctor showed Rose around the universe, they laughed and had fun and sometimes they didn't do anything at all, just stayed inside the vortex and spent their days relaxing on the couch, the Doctor reading a book to her, Rose making some tea. It was all, for lack of a better term, really domestic and sometimes Rose even joked about that and what his previous self would have had to say about the two of them. It was one of those occasions, that the Doctor actually admitted it might not have bothered him as much, as he had tried to make it appear.

"I was quite jealous.", he told her one day, "Of everyone."

"Everyone?", Rose asked, sitting on the couch next to him and actually taking the time to paint her toenails. TARDIS blue. The only acceptable colour.

"Well, yes. Mickey, Jack, Adam..."

"Really? I never noticed.", the told him, smiling her famous tongue-touching smile.

"Because you never were, right?", the Doctor teased back, his glasses perched high on his nose and something that might have previously been a toaster clutched in his left hand.

"Of course not. Never.", Rose laughed.

"You told me to me home by midnight."

"You called Mickey Rickey."

"You actually asked me, if the world would and, when I danced!"

"And you magically found your ability to dance as soon as I wanted to dance with Jack!"

"Ohhhhh, you..."

The TARDIS shuddered violently around them and Rose cursed when she lost her balance and fell of the couch.

"What happened?", she asked, as the Doctor pulled her back on her feet and the both darted towards the console room.

"Distress Signal!", he answered.

"Perfect!", Rose shouted as the door to the bedroom materialized right in front of her, "Need my shoes for that."

So she darted into the bedroom and over to the closet to find a pair of sneakers, that actually belonged to her, pulled them on and followed the Doctor, who had already landed them with only slight turbulences.

"Okay, what is it.", Rose asked the Doctor, while pulling up her hair into a ponytail to keep it out of her face.

"Haven't looked yet.", he informed her hand hopped impatiently from one foot to the next, waiting for her to get ready.

"Of we go then, Alons-y.", she grinned and he smiled happily at her as he opened the door.

"Distress signal transmitted.", the mechanical voice of a computer greeted them, when they exited into a small, steam-filled room, that glowed eerily red.

"Whoa, now that is hot.", the Doctor muttered and looked around them.

"Yeah, glad I'm in a shirt.", Rose agreed looking around with a creased forehead.

"Automated distress signal transmitted.", the computer repeated.

"Why is it so hot? Every time something is hot, it ends badly. Every time we lend in some weird room, it ends badly. Mpf, every time we answer a distress signal, It ends badly. Come to think of it: It always ends badly."

"Oi, not always!", disagreed the Doctor vehemently and opened a door next to them. As soon as they both had walked through it, three people ran towards them.

"Oi, you two!", one of the two men shouted at them. And the only woman continued: "Get out of there!"

"Rude.", breathed Rose softly and the Doctor next to her snored rather loudly, as the three ran past them and shut the door they had just walked through.

"Who are you? What are you doing on my ship?", the woman asked them rather forcefully.

"Are you the police?", the young man, who had spoken first, asked, looking rather more worried than anything else.

"Why would we be police?", the Doctor caught on to his discomfort immediately and completely ignored the woman.

"You sent a distress signal, didn't you? That's why we're here.", Rose tried to pacify the miffed looking woman.

"If this is a ship, why can't I hear any engines?", the Doctor continued to assess the situation.

"It went dead four minutes ago.", the woman grudgingly answered his question.

"So maybe we should stop chatting ans get to Engineering, Captain.", the other man urged .

"Secure closure active.", the computer informed them.

"What?", the woman, who was evidently the captain, asked, looking up at the ceiling in disbelief.

"The ship's gone mad."

As if on cue, another woman came running towards them, the door closing behind her.

"Who activated secure closure?", he breathed heavily, "I almost got locked into area 27. And who are you?"

"Ah, yes, hi. He's the Doctor, I'm Rose."

"Impact projection 42 minutes 27 seconds."

"Impact?", asked Rose in surprise and turned to take a look around.

"We'll get out of this, I promise.", the captain tried to reassure her crew, but Rose wasn't listening anymore, she had found a pothole and seen what exactly they were heading towards.

"Erm, Doctor...", she started carefully.

"42 minutes until what?", the Doctor asked the crew, not hearing Rose's soft call.

"No really, Doctor. Take a look.", Rose tried again, her distressed voice finally alerting him to the fact, that all was not well with his companion. He turned around to look over Rose's shoulder, as the captain narrated the scene by explaining: "42 minutes until we crash into the sun."

The Doctor stared at the sun in front of his eyes for a small moment, before springing into action: "Right, how many crew members on board?"

"Seven. Including us.", The captain answered almost automatically and Rose had to grin proudly. Whenever the Doctor felt the need for it, people intuitively seemed to accept him as an authority figure.

"We transport cargo across the galaxy. Everything's automated. We just keep the ship space-worthy.", one of the man told them reluctantly. Rose quickly decided to call him Grumpy. The Captain. Grumpy. Concerned and Runner. That's what the got stuck with, if the weren't polite enough to introduce themselves. Period.

"Call the others. I'll get you out!", the Doctor shouted and ran past them all towards the door they had just entered through.

"What's he doing?!", Concerned yelled in horror, as the same time as the Captain shouted "No! Don't!"

But she was too late, the Doctor had already opened the door and was knocked on his back by an enormous blast of heat. Reflexively Rose wanted to run towards him, but the Captain held her back, shouting: "Wait. It's too hot!"

Runner put on a mask and ran over to shut the door and the Captain released Rose, who ran over to the slightly dazed looking Doctor.

"But... but... our ship is in there!", he told them, as if the heat hat personally decided to mock him.

"In the vent chamber?", Concerned asked, clearly believing the Doctor to be mentally challenged.

"It's out lifeboat.", the Doctor explained offhandedly, turning around to look at Rose with worried eyes and a deep feeling of dread settled in her stomach. They had lost the TARDIS. Again. And she had joked about Krop Tor and the sanctuary base when the had exited the TARDIS.

"Next time we end up in a hot cupboard, we just turn around, yeah?", she asked weakly, attempting

to light his mood with a little humour. And failed miserably, although the Doctor did his best to smile back.

"I'm sorry, but you're ship's lava.", Grumpy informed them, not without pity.

"The temperature is going mad in there. Up 3000 degrees in ten seconds. And still rising.", Runner continued, wearily watching the door.

"Channelling the air. The closer we get to the sun, the hotter that room is going to get.", the Captain completed their dooming explanation.

"Right then. How about a nice little proposal for a solution. I'm all for it.", Rose smiled and this time the Doctor really did grin before turning towards the crew again: " My offer: Fixing the engine. Fly away from the sun. Temperature to normal. Back to the TARDIS. Simple really. Acceptable?"

"Affirmative.", came Rose's dead-serious reply, "Engineering down there?", and she pointed down the corridor.

"Yes.", the Captain answered, looking slightly dumb-struck.

As they ran down the corridor, Rose good vaguely hear Concerned's voice behind them: "But it's lava!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reaching engineering was properly motivated by the fact that the computer's emotionless voice kept informing them of their impending doom in regular intervals and Rose was fully prepared to crash the next speaker in reach just to make it stop, but sadly that would have been a waste of valuable time, so she had to content herself with running after the Doctor instead. They reached engineering in an almost laughable amount of time and stopped dead, when they saw the state the room was in.

"Blimey, do you always leave things in such a mess? Looks like Rose's...", the Doctor started, before a sharp "Oi!", interrupted him.

"Oh my God.", the Captain looked around in horror.

"What the hell happened?", Grumpy asked, looking equally horrified at the scene in front of them: The engine seemed to have been blown to pieces, pits scattering the floor all around it.

"It's wrecked.", Concerned stated the obvious, watching the Doctor as if hoping for guidance.

"Pretty efficiently, too. Someone knew what they were doing.", the Doctor scuffled over to the engines interface.

The Captain gave one wary look towards the destroyed system before turning around and asking in a remarkably calm voice: "Where's Korwin? Has anyone heard from him or Ashton?"

"No.", stated Grumpy, his voice calculating and Rose was farely certain why: If the Doctor was right and someone had done this on purpose, the suspect pool wasn't very big.

"Why would someone intentionally destroy the engine? If they don't have a way to get of ship, they'll die as well.", Rose whispered towards the Doctor, who was studying the interface intendly

"Yes.", he agreed, "And that's what worries me."

The Captain meanwhile had walked over to the intercom and asked: "Korwin? Ashton? Where are you? Korwin, can you answer?" When no answer came she turned around towards them and asked in a low voice, obviously speaking to herself more than anything: "Where the hell is he? He should be up here."

The whole crew seemed to take that as a cue and scattered around the room, everybody obviously having found something to do for the time being.

"Oh, look, we're in the Torajii system. Lovely. Haven't been here before, have we, Rose?"

"Don't think so, no."

"And you're still using energy scoops for fusion?", the Doctor spoke into the general direction of the crew, "Hasn't that been outlawed yet?"

Rose noticed the Captain exchange a somewhat nervous look with Grumpy, before informing them plainly: "We're due to upgrade next docking. Scannel, engine report."

Well, that was a smooth subject change, Rose noticed with interest and filed it away for later to think about.

At the Captain's question everyone had turned towards the no abandoned interface again and was now impatiently waiting for an answer, as Grumpy checked the readings.

"No response.", answered Grumpy. No, Rose had to remind herself, Scannel.

"What?", the Captain breathed with a heavy mix of disbelief and horror, as Scannel ran over to inspect a different part of the engine, seemingly randomly picking up cables and parts.

"They're burnt out. The controls are wrecked. I can't get them back online."

"Oh come on, auxiliary engines. Every craft's got auxiliaries.", the Doctor exclaimed in disbelief, as the crew looked around in despair.

"We don't have access from here. The auxiliary are in the front of the ship.", came the Captain's remorseful reply.

"Yeah, with 29 password protected doors between us and them.", Scannel came up behind Rose, "You'll never get there in time."

"Not if we don't try, no.", Rose told him sharply, fed up with all of their downtrodden behaviour. She turned towards the Doctor and added: "Sonic?"

"What kind of seal?", the Doctor asked, his left hand playing with something in his pocket Rose knew to be the sonic screwdriver.

"Dead-lock.", Scannel answered impatiently.

"Sonic no use then.", Rose mourned and even the Doctor looked a little worried at that idea.

"Nothing's any use. We got no engines, no time and no chance.", grumbled Scannel again. Maybe Rose should go back to call him Grumpy. Or Gloomy.

The Doctor looked just as annoyed at this as Rose did: "Oh, listen to you. Defeated before you even got started. Where's your Dunkirk spirit? Who's got the door passwords?"

"They're randomly generated. Reckon I know most of them.", Concerned piped up, actually smiling about the fact, that the Doctor wasn't ready to give up, "Sorry. Riley Vashti."

Finally, Rose thought and grinned ant him, someone with manners and spirit. That was more like it.

"Then what're you waiting for, Riley Vashti? Get on it.", the Doctor tasked him, almost proudly.

"Well, it's a two person job.", Riley replied and turned around to start getting some weird backpack of the shelf behind them, "One, a technics for the questions ans the other to carry this. The oldest and cheapest security system around, eh, Captain?"

"Reliable and simple, just like you, eh, Riley?", the Captain dead-panned. And Riley answered without stopping in his motion: "Try and be helpful, get abuse. Nice."

"I'll go with you then, it's the most helpful I can be.", Rose declared and moved over to help Riley.

"It's remotely controlled by the Computer panel. That's why it needs two.", Riley apologized.

Rose simply nodded and turned around to look at the Doctor , who gave her a sharp look before crossing the short distance between them, giving her a quick put passionate kiss, before stepping back and saying: "Be careful."

"Always am. See you in a bit.", she smiled slightly breathless at him and ran after Riley.


	12. Burn with me

Chapter 12

Burn with you

It turned out that Rose saw the Doctor much sooner than expected, when he sprinted past her in a mad dash, the crew follwoing closely behind him, as her and Riley were preparing to open the first door.  
"I wonder what happened now.", Riley mumbled, as he turned his attention to a keypad in front of him.  
"Better focus on our task, yeah?", Rose answered, "The Doctor will tell us, if something's up. Better not to worry until then."  
Riley simply nodded and started tapping away.  
"All right. Fix the clamp on."  
"How exactly does this work?", Rose asked, while simultanously handling the massive clamp.  
"Each door's trip code is the answer to a random question set by the crew. Nine tours back, we got drunk and thought them up. Reckoned, if we were hijacked, we'd be the only ones who'd know all the answers.", Riley explained.  
"Great.", breathed Rose and felt a chill up her spine, "My life depending on knowing random stuff. That doesn't really tend to work for me."  
"You've done this before then?", Riley laughed nervously, clearly thinking it was a joke.  
"I did. Yeah. I got disintegrated."  
"Got it!", Riley shouthed triumphantly, as he lights turned green and Rose managed to open the door.   
"28 more to go!", he added.  
They had just reached the next door, when the Doctor's voice rang out over the speaker: "Rose? How is it going?"  
"Area 29, just about to open the next door.", she shouted back, as Riley started to type again, "How is it going at your end?"  
"Find the next numer in the sequenz 313 331 367... what?!", Riley read out aloud and looked at Rose in horror.  
"Don't look at me, I didn't set those questions.", she defended herself.  
"379", the Doctor answered over the speaker.  
Riley still stared at her helplesly.  
"Oi, didn't you hear him?! Type!", she hissed at him, not wanting to waste anymore time.  
"But we only have the one try, if it's wrong...."  
"It's not. Do it.", she assured him.   
"Rose", the Doctor's urgend voice sounded out again, "Be carefull. There might be something else on board this ship."  
"Of course it is. Would be too easy otherwise.", she answered, as the door opened and they ran through, "Now hurray up. We've got this."  
Riley immidiatly checked the next question and groand in frustration: "This is a nightmare. Classical Music. Who had the most pre-download number ones, Elvis Presley or the Beatles?"  
"Don't know.... will someone else?!", Rose asked him frentically. Should they call up the Doctor? He might know, but she was never sure where is brain would lead him and if he needed to concentrate...  
"The crew has changed. I really don't know... I....", Riley looked at her desperatly.  
"Pre-Download.... wait!", she rummaged through her pocket and found her phone, "Google. That's what we need."  
"What?", Riley clearly thought she was mad, but Rose dialed the only number she could think of right at that moment.  
"Martha Jones.", came the soft answer a moment later.  
"Martha? It's Rose. Sorry to rush, but I really need your help. Are you near a computer?"  
"On it, actually. What do you need?"  
"Who had more number ones, Elvis or the Beatles?"  
There was audible typing at the other end and then a quick "Elvis".  
"Elvis!", Rose repeated loudly for Riley, who just typed it in, the door opening almost immidiatly.  
"Thanks, Martha, I might call again.", Rose told her.  
"Please do. I need to know you guys are save."  
"Will do, bye.", and Rose hung up, as they reached the next door.  
Suddenly there was a woman's voice audible around them, asking for assistance.  
"Who's that?"  
"Abi!", Riley answered, distracted but obviously trying his best to block out his friend distress to better concentrate.  
They were through the next door, Riley having typed in the answer, when a loud and terrifying scream could be heard and Riley froze.  
"Don't.", Rose said quitly, Not now, we need to hurry, Riley."  
"Yeah, right.", and the turned to the next keypad.  
They made it through all the way to area 17, before their equipment suddenly seemed to freeze.  
"Oh come on!", Riley cried out in frustration and hit his computer.  
"Doctor?", Rose called out over the intercom, hoping to use the time to get an update, "What's going on?"  
"A million different things.", came his slightly breathless reply, "Where are you now?"  
"Area 17."  
"Yes, right, good.", he answered slightly distracted and she knew he didn't think it was good at all, but didn't want to be rude to her. At least he was making an afford.  
Suddenly the door they had just passed through opened up behind them and Rose turned to see a blurry figure emerge through the smoke.  
"Is that Korwin?", she asked, trying to hide the fear in her voice.  
"No, I think... I think it's Ashton. Hey man, what are you doing here?", Riley sounds almost as scared as Rose feels, when she sees that the silent figure is wearing a helmet.  
"Burn with me.", he rasps, his voice sounding strangly amplified.  
"Well, if you want to h...", Riley started, but Rose didn't let him finish, as she grabed his arm and pulled him through a nearby door, before finding the right button and closing it again.  
Ashton appeared in the small window, looking at them through his helmet and Riley fretically opened a small hatch, leading them both into a small escape pod and closing them in.  
"What is happening on this ship?", he asked Rose in horror.  
"It's like I said: One problem at the time. How do we get out of here. Escape pod, yeah?"  
“Airlock sealed. Jettison escape pod.”, the Computer's lifeless voice interrupted Riley's answer and he immediately started pressing away at the control-panel.  
“Oh no. Doctor?!”, she tried to reach him.  
“Rose?! What is it? What's wrong?”  
“Pod jettison initiated”  
“Ashton is trying to to jettison us! We're in an escape pod. Area 17.”  
“Jettison held.”  
“Thank you.”, Riley breathed in relieve, but before Rose could tell the Doctor not to worry, the computer destroyed that little moment of victory: “Jettison reactivated.”  
“Oh come on!”, Riley shouted and his finger became even more hectic, “Tsilpinsky sequence. This'll get him.”  
“Jettison held. Escape pod stabilized.”  
“Oh, thank you.” Rose smiled, ready to hug her (as far as she's concerned at that particular moment) new best friend.  
“Jettison activated.”, sounded out again and Rose now really wished she could smash those terrible speakers.  
“He smashed the circuit. I can't stop it. I can't stop it!”, Riley looked up at her in horror.  
“Ok, next step then. What can we do?”, Rose asked him, hoping to keep him from giving up, because really, that wasn't an option. Never.  
“Nothing. The doors are locked. The circuit destroyed. We can do nothing.”  
“Airlock decompression completed. Jettisoning pod.”  
Rose looked up through the window in the door and saw the Doctor looking at her through the glass, for a moment looking exactly as helpless, as she felt. She expected him to vanish again, to work on the circuit. To have his screwdriver in hand. Anything really. But he was simply staring at her, his right hand raised and pressed to the window. She could see him shouting, but no sound reached her ears. She knew what he was saying anyway: “I'll save you!”  
She mustered a small smile in his direction, as he shouted those words over and over, raised her hand and mouthed once, only once: “I know.”, as they floated away from the ship and towards the sun.  
A short moment later he was out of view and Rose turned away from the window and towards Riley, who was watching her intently.  
“He'll come for us.”, she told him simply.  
“No, it's too late. Our heat shields will give up any minute and then we go into free fall. We'll fall into the sun way before he has a chance of doing anything.”  
“I don't believe that. The Doctor and I... we don't believe in impossible.”, Rose tried to assure him.   
Riley looked at her a little sceptically: “It must be nice. Having someone to trust in so completely.”  
“Don't you?”  
“Not really, no. This job, it doesn't really do well with stable relationships.”  
“The Doctor was like that, too, you know? Now he's got me.”, Rose smiled, trying to tell him that everything would work out in the end.  
“Lucky him then.”  
“Lucky me. It's.... him and me. There is nobody else left now.”, she said, suddenly feeling a lot less hopeful. What if this really was the end? If she allowed herself a tiny bit of doubt, just for a second... she had promised him forever. Had promised not to leave him. After all the walls he had erected around himself, he had just started to let her in. What would happen to him, if she died today?  
“No family then?”, Riley asked carefully.  
“No. Not anymore.” Tears welt up in her eyes, as she clamped her lips shut and Riley lay a comforting hand on her shoulder, “How about you? I can't just talk about myself. It's rude. I'm turning into the Doctor now.”  
“Me... there isn't much to tell. My Mum and I, we don't really talk. It's been... wow, six years now. She didn't want me to sign up for cargo tours, wanted me close. Had a huge fight.”  
“Yeah, sounds a bit like my Mum and me. Stubborn Mums, that's what they do. Do you want my phone? You can call her. You know.... talk?”  
“I don't even know how to contact her anymore. Call the Doctor. Maybe you'd like to... say goodbye.”  
“He'll come for us. I know he will.”, she repeated, “And he doesn't have a phone on him anyway. There is none left to call.”  
“What about your friend from earlier? Maybe.... Maybe if they make it, you know, she can give him a message.”  
“Martha. Yeah. Maybe. I don't think he'd actually go and talk to her, but... yeah.”  
She took out her phone again and pressed redial.  
“Rose?”, Martha answered at the first ring, “Are you guys safe.”  
“Nah... not really. Well, My new friend Riley and I, we're in an escape pod. And we're kinda heading towards a sun.”  
“What?! Oh my God, how can I help?!”  
“I don't really think you can, Martha.”, Rose answered, surprised to find tears running down her face, “He'll come for us. The Doctor. I know he will, but... but if he doesn't...”  
“Rose, you are really scaring me now.”  
“If I don't make it, Martha... you are the only one I can tell about this. I have an aunt and a cousin, but... they don't know about any of this. Can you tell the Doctor that it was not his fault? It was never ever his fault. And I don't regret a tiny, single moment. Can you tell him that?”  
Martha hesitated for a moment, cleared her throat and said: “Yes, I promise I will.”  
“Thank you. I need to hang up now, but thank you.”  
“He'll come for you.”, Martha tried to reassure her, “And once you guys are back on the TARDIS, you call me.... or come by for a cup of tea, yeah?”  
“Yeah, I will. Goodbye, Martha.”, and without waiting for a response, Rose hung up and looked over at Riley, who slit his arms around her and held her close.  
“He'll save us. He will.”, Rose repeated.  
“And when he does, I think I'm gonna visit my Mum.”, Riley breathed into her shoulder.  
“That does sound like a plan. A really good one. Mums forgive a whole lot. I once went missing for a whole year.”  
“Really? She must have been really angry then.”  
“More hurt, I think. But she forgave me. Forgave the Doctor, too. She was just glad to have me back. You'll see, it'll be like that with your Mum, too.”  
“Yeah, she...”  
A big jolt went through the escape pod and Rose clang to Riley even tighter.  
“Rose, we're being pulled back! It says re-magnetising!”  
“The Doctor.”, Rose smiled and let go of Riley to turn to the door, where the ship was getting closer again.  
When they re-dock, Rose can hardly wait for the compression before storming out of the small pod and almost colliding with the Doctor, who is half kneeling, half standing in front of them.  
“Doctor! What is it? What happened?”, worry making her voice so much higher, as she through her arms around the Doctor, who tried to rob away from her.  
“Stay back, you need to stay back!”, he hissed, obviously in pain, as his eyes opened only slightly and a bright light shone through them, Rose took a careful step back, but couldn't get herself to let go completely, her left hand still resting on his suit-clad shoulder.  
“What's happened?”, the captain shouted frantically behind them.  
“It's all your fault, Captain McDonnell!”, the Doctor answered, toppling over in pain. Rose lifted her right hand and cupped the Doctor's cheek. He was hot, so incredibly hot, but flinched away at her touch, as if it was him, who got burned. Vaguely Rose could her the captain shout something behind her, but she didn't care, fully concentrating on the Doctor instead.  
“Doctor, talk to me.”, she urged him desperately, “Please tell me what is going on.”  
“The sun. The sun is alive!”  
“And it is doing this, yeah? Why?”  
“They stripped it's surface for cheap fuel. Scooped out it's heart. It's screaming, screaming!”  
The captain was saying something behind them, but neither Rose nor the Doctor were paying her any attention right then.   
“The sun is what's infected people then?”, Rose asked, realization of what exactly had happened on this ship hitting her.  
“Yes, yes, and now it's in me, too!”  
“Then tell me what to do. You are way too hot. Will cooling you down help?!”  
“Stasis chamber. Med bay. You need to freeze me, Rose! Below minus 200. Freeze it out of me! It'll use me to kill you otherwise. I can't. I just can't!”  
“Captain, help me get him to the stasis chamber. Now!”. Rose shouted at the frozen woman and together they hurled the Doctor to his feet and more or less dragged him to the ship's medical centre and with a little difficulty on the stretcher.  
“Captain, can you turn this thing on?!”, Rose shouted over her shoulder as she tried her best to get the writhing Doctor to stay put.  
“Yes, but this... it's too cold! He won't be able to survive it!”  
“He said minus 200. So that is what we will do.”, Rose told her resolutely, placing her hands on the Doctor's face.  
“10 seconds.”, the Doctor whimpered, his eyes shut tightly and burning up beneath her shaking hands, “10 seconds. I can't... I can't take more than that!”  
“Captain, 10 seconds, did you hear that?!”  
“Rose! Don't go!”, the Doctor almost whispered, his panicked hand grabbing her forearm.  
“I won't. You know I won't. Forever, yeah?”, tears were running down her face again, as she watched helplessly.   
“Rose, I'm scared. I'm so scared. I could kill you. I don't want to kill you, please. Please don't let me!”  
“Everything will be fine. I promise. And then... then we go out for chips, yeah? Nice and simple. Like our first date.”  
“I might not make it, I might have to change again. Please don't leave me!”  
“Of course I won't. Don't be stupid. I loved that daft old face of yours. And this rude one. Whatever happens, I won't stop loving you. Forever. Trust me.”  
“I do.”  
The captain had gone quite behind them, either typing away at the controls or seriously confused whatever was going on right in front of her, but Rose didn't care. She let her fingers slip from the Doctor's burning face and grabbed onto his hand instead as she turned towards the captain and asked: “Are you ready?”  
“Yes.”, McDonnell answered uncertainly and Rose took a step back, as she moved a lever and the Doctor was rolled into the chamber. And then the screaming started. Rose was standing outside the chamber, her hands pressed against her mouth and tears streaming freely down her face, wishing more than anything in the world that she could be in there with him and hold his hand. And then just as suddenly as it started, the chamber seemed to lose all power.   
“No, Rose! Too soon, you can't stop yet!”, the Doctor shouted from inside the chamber and Rose looked at McDonnell in shock.  
“The Power's been cut by engineering. I'll deal with it. Just press this button, when power comes back.”, she instructed Rose and ran out of the room.  
“Doctor? The captain is going to take care of this, yeah? You just need to hold on a little longer for me. Please, can you do that?”  
“You need to go, Rose, you can't be here!”, the Doctor whimpered and for a moment she thought she'd misheard him.  
“I am not going anywhere.”  
“You need to vent the engines. Go to the front. You NEED to get rid of the sun-particles in the fuel.”  
“Doctor...”, she started, but he didn't let her finish: “Give back what they took, please!”  
“Fine, but I'll be back as soon as possible. Don't you dare go anywhere!”, and without waiting for an answer she sprinted through the door and all the other now open ones until the Doctor's amplified voice saying her name stopped her in her tracks.  
“Doctor? What is it? What's happened?!”  
“I can't fight it. Give it back or burn with me.”  
Rose panicked and started running again, now even faster than she would have thought possible as she faintly registered the Doctor's raspy “Burn with me, Rose.” Mixed with the computer's constant reminders of their imminent fate.  
She found Riley and Scannell frantically trying to get the auxiliaries to work, when she ran in at full speed and used the same tone she had so often heart the Doctor used: “Dump the fuel. All of it. NOW!”  
Recognizing the urgency in her voice, the two men obey instantly, turning knobs and pushing levers and Rose didn't wait to see what happened but turned around and ran towards the med-centre again, when she suddenly felt the whole ship give a frightening lurk and Rose fell heavily to the ground. For a moment she was too dazed to do anything as the computer's voice informed her: “Impact averted. Impact averted. Impact averted.”  
There was a happy shout behind her and Riley appeared in the corridor, grouching down next to her: “Rose! Are you ok?!”  
“I... yes, I think... I.... the Doctor. I need to get back.”  
“You are bleeding, Rose, come on. Med-bay.”  
“Yes. Med-bay. The Doctor.”  
Riley was almost carrying her now, her knees for some reason not strong enough to carry her weight. She wasn't sure, if she had just lost track of time or maybe even conciousness, but suddenly she was lying on the floor, the Doctor's worried eyes only inches from her face.  
“Doctor?”, she asked uncertainly, “Oh look, it's still you. Are you okay?”  
“Me? I am fine. Dandy. Brilliant. Molto Bene. What is it you have done again? Really, jeopardy friendly might have been too lenient a term for you.”  
“I think I fell.”  
“Yes, you did. Hit your head pretty hard, too. Concussion. We'll be able to fix you back up once we get back to the TARDIS. It should be cool enough soon.”   
“And then we can go back home and have a cuppa, yeah?”  
“I thought you wanted chips?”  
“Nah, I feel it bit queasy. Tea. Tea in bed?”  
“That sounds good. We can finish the last book of “A song of ice and fire”, too. How about that?”  
“Mhhhhhh, yeah. Sounds lovely.”  
Rose only remembered little snippets after that: Being carried. Riley softly kissing her on the cheek. Scannell squeezing her shoulder. And waking up in their bed, using the Doctor's chest as a pillow.  
“Are you all right?”, she asked softly, being used to him staying with her when she slept, but hardly ever sleeping himself. When he didn't answer she realized that he must be deeply asleep as well and she wondered just how much the day's happenings had really affected him. She would make sure to ask him in the morning, she told herself, before she slipped back into sleep. 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rose woke the next morning to find the Doctor sitting next to her, a steaming cup of tea in his hand and the book they'd been reading in his lap.  
“Good morning, sleeping beauty.”  
“Morning. How are you?”  
“Me, still fine. Why?”  
Rose sighed when she heard his answer. She knew that look too well. He was clearly not fine, but nothing she could say to him right now would make him admit otherwise. He wasn't just lying to her, but to himself as well. So instead of pushing him for something that would only want to make him run away, she smiled at him, set up to rest against the headboard and took the offered cup.   
“Oh, I need to call Martha!”, she suddenly remembered and reached for her phone on the night-stand.  
“Riley told me you called her, so I phoned her yesterday and told her not to worry. She made me promise that we would go for a quite day in today. Told her it wasn't a problem, we were planning on finishing this book anyway. Why not do it in bed?”  
“That sounds nice.”, Rose smiled and took a appreciative sip of her tea, as the Doctor opened the book and started to read softly.


	13. The Imposter

Chapter 13

The Imposter

Rose jawned more or less discretely and tried to pin her light brown hair back as she stood in front of the small mirror she shared with Jenny. She did notice proudly though that she had gotten much better at it in the past two months. When she had arrived here, Jenny had laughed disbelievingly at her efforts to make herself look decent and decided to help the new girl fit in. And although Jenny still couldn't believe how Rose had survived as a maid before coming to the school, she had never really laughed about Rose, just with her and so the two girls had become fast friends. Which was definitely a good thing, since they shared a small room. A new experience for Rose, who as an only child never had to shared her personal space with anyone.   
“I think I'm gonna be late. Philips is gonna throw a tantrum, if his tea is cold.”  
“Don't worry about it.”, Jenny tried to reassure her, “Just start with him and do Smith last. He won't mind anyway, as long as it's you bringing it.”  
Rose's smile vanished completely and the look she gave Jenny must have been truly terrifying, because Jenny's teasing smile froze immediately.  
“What is it with you and him anyway?”, she asked, trying not too sound curious and failing spectacularly. It was an old question, but Rose still only pursed her lips and said: “Nothing. I have no idea what you are talking about.”  
“Suuuuure. He looks at you like you are the world. And you look at him as if he drowned your kitten.”  
“I do not! I am always polite to Mr Smith.”  
“Yes. Polite. You are NICE to everyone else.”  
Rose shot her a poisonous glare. This conversation was the only thing that truly annoyed her about Jenny. What exactly was she supposed to answer to that anyway? She was sure Jenny thought they had a scandalous past, especially since her cover was that she had been a maid at his parents' house and had just followed him here, but... the truth was so much worse.  
“You can drop it. There is nothing to tell. I don't know what you are talking about.”, Rose tried again and this time she didn't even give her friend time to answer, before she bolted out of their room and almost ran to the kitchen to get the tea ready for everyone. She had to steady herself for a moment when she reached the kitchen and the cook looked at her with worry. “You all right, girl?”, she asked.  
“Yeah, feeling a bit queasy. Shouldn't have run down here.”  
“Don't you hurry too much just because of grumpy old Philips. He'll be fine. See? Your water is still hot.”  
“Thank you so much.”, Rose smiled at her and carefully took everything she needed to make her morning rounds, starting with Mr Philips (who reminded her of being late) and finishing with Mr Smith, who was still in bed and undressed, when Rose entered his room.  
“Oh, so sorry.”, she said, averting her eyes and almost stepping out again.  
“No. No. No, it's fine. I'm up. Just come in.”  
Rose still didn't dare look at him, as she readied his breakfast tray on his desk.“I was just... Sometimes I have these extraordinary dreams and I admit that I enjoy them so much that I can't seem to get myself to wake up.”, Smith continued eagerly, obviously hoping for some sort of response from Rose, who had to actively remind herself that she had to be nice. That this wasn't his fault. None of it. She breathed in deeply and said: “What about, Sir?”  
“I dream I'm this adventurer. This daredevil, a madman. The Doctor I'm called.”  
With an audible shatter the cup Rose had been holding fell to the ground and for a moment she just looked at the man in-front of her in horror. This wasn't right. This wasn't supposed to be possible. Smith should not remember any of this. Any of HIM.  
“Rose? Rose?”, Smith asked her and the fact that he was standing right beside her now and his tone of voice convinced her that it was not the first time he had called her name.   
“I am so sorry, Sir. I'll get you a new cup immediately, Sir.”  
“Don't worry about that. You are obviously unwell. Do sit down, please. I shall go for the matron.”, and he almost forcefully pushed her down on his armchair.  
“I am fine! Really, no need to fuss!”, Rose tried to convince him and sprang up again. “I have work to do, Sir.”, and with that she ran from the second room that morning. Apparently she was making a habit out of it. She knew she was being a coward, but Rose just couldn't get herself to return to that study. To that face. It was like regeneration, only worse. Then she had come to realize that despite the new face, it was still HIM inside, but this time? It really wasn't. John Smith might LOOK like the Doctor, but he didn't even sound like him. And back then they hadn't been.... as close as they were now.  
This time the Doctor had left her. Left her with someone else walking around inside his body. And unfair or not, every time she saw John Smith she couldn't help but think that he had taken the place of the man she loved. He was an imposter. Nothing else.  
She made it back to the kitchen and found Jenny already assembling everything they needed to scrub the floor in the hall. Again. And Rose had thought working in a shop was bad.  
The two friends spend their morning cleaning away, scrubbing floors and generally just keeping busy, with Rose lost in thoughts and Jenny trying to either cheer her up or pry information from her.  
Rose almost managed to drown out her situation and Jenny chatting on beside her, when a sudden “Rose!”, broke through the haze. She almost jumped up in surprise and her face broke out in an involuntary happy smiley, before her situation caught up with her and she remembered that it was John Smith and not the Doctor calling her name.  
“Yes, sir?”, she asked, carefully trying to keep her voice neutral and her eyes still downcast.  
“What are you doing? You were obviously really unwell this morning. Have you gone and seen matron?”  
“There is really no need, Sir. As I told you this morning: I am perfectly all right.”  
Rose still didn't dare to look at him, but she could almost feel Jenny's eyes burning a hole in her head.  
Mr Smith seemed to consider arguing for a moment, before softly saying: “Don't overdo it, please.”, and leaving up the stairs.  
Jenny waited far longer than Rose would have guessed before speaking: “What was he talking about?!”  
“I was a bit dizzy this morning. That's all. Please don't make a big thing out of it.”  
“All right. I won't.”, Jenny agreed and started scrubbing again. Rose looked at her in surprise, clearly not having expected that.  
“Thank you.”, she answered carefully, not really trusting how easy she got off. And she was right:  
“But I can comment on the fact that Mr Smith makes a right fuss about you. Can't imagine him doing that for anybody else.”  
“He just hasn't known you long enough.”, Rose started to deflect.  
“Now then, you two are not being paid to gossip about your superiors, are you? Put a little backbone into it.”, one of the students snarled at them and his friend grinned disparagingly at them.  
Rose hadn't even seen them approach, and obviously neither had Jenny, who shrank back in herself and muttered: “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”  
Rose really wanted to punch that smug smile right off his face. But obviously the pair didn't know what else to talk about and simply left.   
Rose hoped the rest of the day would go by in relative silence, but again she was soundly disappointed, when she was preparing the afternoon tea and Jenny hurried in with some news she thought Rose needed to know immediately: “Mr Smith fell down the stairs. Heaven knows how he managed that. Head in the clouds, that one. Matron is seeing to him now.”  
Rose cursed loudly. And quite colourfully, which caused both Jenny and the cook to stare at her in horror.   
“Where would a respectable girl like yourself even learn such words?!”, the cook asked, clearly scandalized.  
“From a captain.”, Rose informed her distractedly, picked up one of the trays and left the kitchen in a huff. This place was supposed to be relatively safe. No wars yet. No people they knew. A time Rose could still relate to without UNIT or the internet. If John Smith managed to kill himself HERE she would personally find a way to go back in time and smack the Doctor into his next regeneration.  
She reached his study and knocked once before entering, holding the tray like a shield in front of her body.  
“Your afternoon tea, Sir.”, Rose informed him curtly, trying her best to ignore just how closely Smith and the matron were standing together.  
“Yes, right, thank you.”, Smith answered, looking really flustered.  
“I heard you took quite the fall, sir. Are you all right?”, Rose asked, her gaze rather more trained on the matron than Smith, who seemed to take it upon herself to answer: “Mr Smith will be fine. No permanent damage has been caused.”  
Mr Smith, obviously uncomfortable with the two women in the room talking about him, changed the subject to something else entirely: “I was just telling Nurse Redfern... Matron... about my dreams. The ones I told you about this morning.”, Smith told her enthusiastically, clearly hoping for a response, but both Rose and the Matron were simply looking at him, so he stumbled on uncomfortably: “They are quite remarkable tales. I keep imagining that I am someone else and that I'm hiding.”  
Rose did her best not to drop another cup of tea, as she sat it out on the desk, striving to leave as soon as possible, now that she was sure Smith wasn't seriously hurt.  
“Hiding? In what way?”, the matron asked, genuinely interested.  
“Oh no, this is going to sound silly.”, Smith answered, laughing nervously.  
“Tell me.”, the matron told him firmly and Smith hesitated only for a tiny moment before saying: “I dream, quite often, that I have two hearts.”  
Rose picked up the now empty tray and decided to rather leave the room, than listen to an obviously private conversation. What exactly was she supposed to do about this? Act? John Smith and Joan were obviously starting something, but should she interfere somehow? Do something? They had to stay here for another month. A whole month, which could get really awkward, if somebody thought she was jealous or she even got fired for something. Jealous, what a weird notion. Was she jealous? No, she decided. She wasn't jealous. Not of Joan. Maybe a bit though of the two of them. How easy all of this seemed to come to them. How open Smith was, where the Doctor was so closed of. No, she thought, that wasn't fair. The Doctor had been through hell and was still struggling to make it back. John Smith was never going to compare to that and Rose really shouldn't try to do that anyway. But she wondered sometimes, if maybe Smith was what the Doctor used to be before the war... a carefree, open version of the man she loved. She knew the Doctor had been scared of becoming human, scared of her not wanting him to change back. He hadn't really said it to her face, but when she had gone to dye her hair back to her natural colour so her roots wouldn't show and he had wanted some time to prepare everything, he had left her a video message with instructions. One of them joking about her maybe loving his human self so much, she wouldn't want him back. And he had rambled over it and laughed about it, but she had seen the fear in his eyes, the insecurity there that maybe she would find him lacking in contrast to his human self. He could not have been more wrong. John Smith. He was a nice man. Intelligent. Open. Funny. But he wasn't the Doctor. He wasn't his depths. His rough edges. His history. He wasn't... enough. He just wasn't the Doctor. And nobody else would be enough for her.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

When Rose's day finally came to an end, she fell down on her bed, still fully clothed, closed her eyes and just concentrated on her breathing for a bit. She had never really appreciated just how much easier life was not even a hundred years later, not to mention the TARDIS. A soft knocking sound cut her downtime short, as she got up again and opened the door, unsure of what to expect. What ever it was, she couldn't have been more wrong. Joan Redfern was standing in front of her door, looking resolute but slightly uncomfortable.  
“Matron?”, Rose stared at the woman in surprise.  
“Yes, may I come in please?”, Joan asked, obviously not wanting to discuss whatever it was outside in the hallway.  
“Yes, sure. Please come in.”, Rose hurried and stepped aside to let her unexpected visitor inside.  
Joan gave the small room a quick glance before turning towards Rose, who quietly shut the door.  
“Mr Smith has asked me to check on you. He said you experienced some fatigue this morning.”, Joan explained, giving Rose a calculating look.  
Rose blinked rapidly at her, unsure how to answer that. It was obvious that Joan had more to say then that, but she didn't continue, instead waiting for Rose to response.  
“It is nothing.”, Rose tried carefully, “I've had circulation problems in the past. It is indeed very nice of Mr Smith to worry, but unnecessary. I am perfectly fine.”  
Rose had hoped this would end this truly dangerous conversation, but Joan just kept looking at her as if battling with an idea she really didn't want to voice. Rose actually thought about simply opening the door and hoping the matron would leave, but she could not afford to antagonize her like that. The two women just looked at each other for what felt like an entire lifetime, before Joan took a deep breath, schooled her features and said: “How far along are you?”   
Rose made a very undignified squeaking noise and griped her apron desperately: “Excuse me?”  
“You are with child, are you not?”, the matron continued mercilessly, “I might not see this condition often in a school for boys, but I am not blind to the symptoms. Your fatigue. The way you avoid heavy lifting. You shield your stomach, even if you don't notice it.”  
“I... I'm....”, Rose was at a loss for words. She thought she'd been hiding it so well and having her big secret so bluntly thrown in her face... “11 weeks.”, she finally admitted.  
Something in Joan's eyes shifted at her words. She stood straighter and moved her hands up in front of her. Shielding herself, Rose thought.  
“And you came here two months ago. With Mr Smith? You were employed at his parent's house, yes?”  
And suddenly it clicked for Rose, just why the matron looked so defensive all of a sudden, why her voice was clipped and bare of any emotions. Professional.  
“It is not Mr Smith's, if that is what you are worried about.”, she told the older woman, trying to make it believable. But it was true, she thought. The baby was the Doctor's. She couldn't even imagine what he would say to all of this. Children had never come up. Rose had never even thought that it was an option. Not with their lifestyle and difference in species. And even if she had, certainly not so soon. A baby, how would they even fit a baby in their life? No, she told herself. Don't do this now. Don't think about it now. Don't panic. Don't freak out. Not now. Not again.   
Joan visibly deflated, her professional exterior crumbled away and suddenly she only looked like a concerned woman, genuinely interested in Rose's situation.  
“Oh”, she breathed, “I, well, thank you for telling me. I admit I was a bit worried. I don't want to overstep, but I thought it would explain so much, if you two.... well...”  
“Why?”, Rose asked her, brows furrowed.  
“He always treats you with so much honest concern. He... I saw a drawn picture of you in his book... I just thought... but no matter. The father, does he know?”  
“No.”, Rose admitted reluctantly , sitting down on her bed, “Not yet. I... he left for a while, but he'll be back in a month and then we'll leave. Together.”  
“You'll have to now.”, Joan said, looking at her in sympathy, “It would be my duty to inform the headmaster and he will have to let you go.”  
“Please don't. Not yet. He'll be back for me, but... if the headmaster sends me away now... I'd have nowhere to go.”, Rose admitted quietly, her eyes big and pleading.  
“Matron, please.”  
The matron sat down beside Rose on the bed and gently squeezed her hand as she said: “You may call me Joan. And I won't tell anyone yet, but you must promise me that I can examine you and make sure that you and your child are well.”  
“You would help me like that? Why?”, Rose asked faintly.  
“Because Mr Smith considers you a friend. And I would not want to make your situation any worse.”, Joan told her resolutely and smiled reassuringly, but Rose couldn't get herself to return it. She really liked Joan, the strong woman, who stood her own in a world filled by men. And the fact that she seemed to care so much about John Smith only confirmed Rose's opinion of her, but... in a month she would have to bring the Doctor back. John Smith would simply cease to exist. And Joan would have lost another important man in her life. Her guilty conscience gnawed heavily at her, as she finally managed to smile up at her new friend.


	14. Time is up

Chapter 14

Time is up

 

When Rose had first suspected she might be pregnant, she had simply dismissed the notion. Unlikedly. Impossible even. But that tiny, nagging voice in her head kept reminding her that impossible had lost all meaning since she'd met the Doctor. So Rose kept going, trying actively not to think about the whole situation . Basically ignoring her problems like a three years old shutting her eyes, thinking that if she couldn't see something, then it didn't exist. And if she allowed herself to think about it at all, she told herself that it was nothing. Stress, maybe. And shouldn't she have symptoms? Didn't women in stories always get morning sickness? She hadn't been sick at all, ergo no baby. Simple. Really, if she thought about it.   
Five weeks after the had arrived at the school, Rose officially allowed herself to maybe, maybe entertain the idea that she MIGHT be pregnant. Might. So on the following sunday, she borrowed Jenny's bicycle and went to the small wooden shet the TARDIS had hidden herself in. She stood in the console room for a moment, stroking the columns and simply talking to the TARDIS, who was dark and silent, no comforting hum for Rose that day. After half an hour she decided that she couldn't delay the inevitable anymore and made her way to the med-bay. The scanner was (like most things in there) in Gallifreyan, but Rose still managed to find the on-switch, pointed it at her midsection, closed her eyes and waited. It took only a second for the scanner to pick up on the baby's heartbeat and transmit it through the room. Rose's eyes widened in shock, as she heard the soft, erratic noise. Through the muffled shock that overtook her, one realization managed to sneak into her brain. The heartbeat sounded... off. Carefully she held the scanner up to look at its display and emits all the strange writing she couldn't decipher, she saw a tiny blob, magnified my the scanner. And in there: Two beating hearts.  
She had sat in the med-bay for two hours after that, simply listening to the sound of her baby's double heartbeat. Beating out a samba already, she thought, tears streaming down her face. If they were tears of joy, pain, fear.... she didn't even know it herself. But she missed the Doctor. So desperately. He should be here. With her. Scanner in hand. She needed him to explain to her what exactly was happening. Her baby had two hearts. Did that mean it was what? A timelord? Would it one day be able to regenerate? Or was it too human for that? Would her pregnancy be normal? Shorter? Longer? And most importantly: She needed him to hug her and tell her everything would be fine.  
So Rose made her way back to the console room and switched the Doctor's recording back on, just to hear his voice. Would he be happy about this, she wondered. Would he even WANT this?   
If not, she decided, if he told her he really didn't want a baby, didn't want the responsibility, the reminder... she would ask him to drop her back in her own time. She still had family there. An aunt. A cousin. Her own mother had been a single Mum and Rose knew she could do it, too, if she really had to. She had been so afraid the Doctor would leave her and she'd be alone, but... that was before. She would not be alone. She'd have a baby. She'd be a... Mum. The thought felt more alien to her than anything she had ever seen in her time in the TARDIS.... Right then, she didn't feel like a Mum, but she knew she desperately wanted her own. Or someone, really to talk to.   
“Martha!”, she breathed and ran into her room, lay down on their bed and took her phone of the night-stand to phone the only number she had still saved in it.  
“Martha Jones.”, came the familiar voice over the speaker and Rose breathed a sigh of relief, she had been so worried Martha might not pick up.  
“Hey Martha, it's Rose.”  
“Rose?! Oh please tell me you're not dying again!”, came Martha's worried reply.  
“Quite the opposite, actually.”, Rose laughed wetly, “I am pregnant.”  
There was a loaded pause at the other end, before Martha answered in what Rose liked to call the “Doctor Jones”-voice: “Ok, you are sure? Then make that boyfriend of yours take you over here so I can check you out. He might call himself the Doctor, but I'd really like to make sure.”  
“He can't.”, Rose told her and started to cry again, “He's gone.”  
“What do you mean “gone”? Rose, please tell me what is happening.”  
“He... He made himself human. We were being followed by these aliens and the could travel through time as well... so we came to 1913 and he is a teacher now at a school and I am a maid. And he isn't really the Doctor anymore. The Doctor has hidden himself in a watch and there is only John Smith. And he looks like the Doctor but isn't and.... Oh God.”  
Martha seemed to take a moment to process all of that before saying: “How much longer do you have to hide?”  
“A little less than seven weeks.”, Rose admitted.  
“Oh wow. Rose. I.... I don't know what to say to that.”, Martha admitted.  
“What do I do, Martha? What do I do, if he doesn't want this?”  
“Then you move to London and be an awesome Mum. After we punched the Doctor's lights out.”, Martha dead-panned and Rose laughed despite the whole situation, “But honestly, Rose... I don't think that's what's gonna happen. I've seen the way that man looks at you. He might be shocked for a bit, but... he loves you. And he is a good man.”  
“But with this life... Martha, I can't run nine months pregnant or with a newborn. Our life isn't exactly baby-friendly.”  
“I am sure you'll figure it out somehow. Together. You'll still have enough time to decide on that once the Doctor is himself again. Don't assume the worst right now.”  
“Yeah well, it's easier to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.”, Rose admitted and suddenly felt very guilty about the fact that she had immediately jumped to the worst case scenario. It wasn't fair on the Doctor.  
“Ah well, maybe a middle ground. Him coming home to London after a day of travelling through the universe.”, Martha laughed and Rose could almost see the smile through the phone.  
“Yeah, and I'll await him with a freshly made shepherd's pie and tell him everything about Mrs Johnson next door and how her cat ran away.”  
“See? That doesn't sound too bad!”  
Somehow Rose really didn't think it would go down like that but it was nice to joke and laugh a bit instead of simply worrying. They talked for hours that day and it was a long time before Rose returned back to the school.

 

Now, three weeks later, Rose lay on her bed again, this time at the school and curled into a ball, thinking of how lucky she actually was. Not only could she always walk to the TARDIS and call Martha, who promised to help her anyway she could, but even Joan Redfern had offered to help. Rose knew how much that must have cost the other woman, who obviously thought there was more going on between Rose and John Smith, even though no-one was saying anything, and who was obviously falling madly in love with the man himself.  
Rose really wished she could have met Joan under different circumstances. And she still didn't know how to handle the Joan and John situation.  
Her thoughts were racing so fast, Rose was sure she'd never be able to sleep, but before long the hard days work caught up with her and she didn't even wake up to see Jenny return from a night down in the village.

 

The next morning Rose made her usual breakfast round feeling lighter that she had ever had since arriving there two months ago. Not even Mr Philips normal morning grumpiness could sour her mood. And as she reached Mr Smith's study she even managed a genuine smile for him, which seemed to catch him completely of guard, leaving Rose to wonder just how impolite she had really treated the man, making him into the symbol of everything that was wrong in her life.  
“Good morning, Sir!”, she chirped and lay the tea out for him.  
“Morning, Rose.”, he answered and gave her a tentative smile in return, “Ah, Matron informed me not to worry about you. I... I am sorry, if I overstepped yesterday.”  
“No, don't. It was nice of you to care. But you really don't have to.”, she tried to assure him, before finishing up and leaving again. She really wanted to get her morning rounds over and done with quickly, so she could get in some time for a quick trip back home. And call Martha, maybe she'd know what to do about the budding romance. As it turned out, Rose really needn't have bothered. After an unexpected spill in the dining hall and maddening mud-tracks up the main staircase, the day was over far quicker than she had hoped. Before she knew it, Rose was back on afternoon tea rounds. Again. She was seriously considering throwing out all of their tea once she was back in the TARDIS. As it turned out Mister Poole, one of the teachers, didn't want his tea and since the cook had taken quite the liking to Rose (despite her foul language the other day) she was allowed to keep the whole thing for Jenny and herself.   
She had just finished arranging the whole thing, when her room-mate entered. Rose flashed Jenny a quick smile, before turning back to pouring the tea, as she said: “There you are. For a moment I was worried you'd be late and the tea'd be cold before you could have any.” When Jenny stayed silent and didn't respond immediately, Rose sat the tea pot down and looked up at her young friend.  
“Are you all right, Jenny?”  
Jenny narrowed her eyes at Rose and sniffed deeply, sending a shiver down Rose's spine. This wasn't right. This wasn't right at all.  
“Jenny?”, she asked, trying not to show any fear, as she took a careful step back, hiding her hands that were desperately searching for some kind of weapon on the small table.  
Jenny was still watching her intently, sniffed once more and then her eyes zoned in on Rose's still flat stomach, giving Rose all the information she needed. Without hesitation, she threw the hot tea at whatever had taken possession of her friend, who screamed, but despite Rose's hope for the contrary, didn't back away from the door, instead coming even closer and taking a hold of Rose's arm.  
“Let me go!”, Rose hissed at her, trying to wiggle free, but a mere second later she froze in shock, as she felt Jenny press something against her stomach. Weapon, she thought.  
“You smell of timelord.”, Jenny spoke for the first time, her voice strangely mechanic and hollow, “Your baby IS timelord. Now where is the Doctor?”  
“Go to hell.”, Rose spat at her, but still didn't dare to move.  
“We only need the lives of a timelord. I don't know how old they have to be. Maybe your child will already be enough. Husband of mine will know the answer.”  
Rose wanted to scream, to hit and trash, but there was a weapon trained at her belly. If Jenny shot her, there was nothing she could do either. Endless ideas were running through her head, but she dismissed all of them. Too risky for her and the baby. She'd have to wait... what exactly for she didn't know. An opportunity, a weakness. Anything. Help, she knew, wouldn't come. There was nobody here who could have helped her. No one, who even cared enough to realize immediately, if she went missing.   
“We are going for a walk.”, Jenny informed her, putting a coat over her arm to hide what Rose had recognized as a sonic blaster.  
Jenny followed close behind, as Rose exited the room and she was so busy trying to figure out how to get out of this mess that she didn't even see one of the students coming around the corner, before she collided with him. The boy looked at her with something akin to panic, which Rose might have found weird, if she'd had the time to think about it, but right then she really couldn't spare the time.  
“R...Rose?”, the boy asked, but before she could answer, Jenny said: “No time. We need to leave right now.”, and bodily pushed Rose forward. For a brief moment Rose hoped the boy might get help, but then she remembered that there was no one he could go to. Even if he reported that Jenny had acted weird and on the off chance that someone would believe him... this was 1913. Whatever anyone could try, it would never be a match for a sonic blaster. And if the the aliens were here now, they definitely had a ship equipped with weapons. No, it was better for everyone, if he didn't tell a soul.   
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tim Latimer was at a loss. He had always sort of... known things. Little things, mostly. But everything had changed once Mr Smith and Rose had come to the school two months ago. Suddenly Tim was plagued by a vision he was sure meant his death. And it scared him, yes, he admitted that freely, but it didn't terrify him nearly as much as the glimpses he sometimes got around Mr Smith and occasionally even Rose. Power. Violence. Fear. Loss and... yes, Love. But it was so hard to get his head around what exactly he was seeing that he did his best to ignore these images. At least until he found Mr Smith's watch and the thing actually spoke to him. Many, muffled voices overlapping, talking of war. The Doctor. Danger. And Rose, always Rose. He hadn't even actively made the decision to take the watch, but he knew he had to. For some reason it was important. Very important. Wait, it kept telling him, wait and keep me save. And today Tim had finally realized what exactly he needed to keep the watch safe from. Or at least: Who. They had been standing together near the school, moving in unison. Watching. SNIFFING. And the seemed to be most interested in Mr Smith. So Tim had taken all his courage and went to see Rose, but he had been too late. He had collided with Rose outside her dorm, imaged flashing through his mind: A different Rose, bright, golden, dangerous. And then suddenly Rose, looking worried and exhausted, but smiling, holding a small, wrinkly baby with big brown eyes in her arms. Caressing it's thick brown hair lovingly.  
It was over just as quickly as it had begun and for a moment Tim was frozen in shock as he looked into Rose's eyes. Brown. Not golden. He called her name once, hoping she'd be able to help him, before he realized that one of THEM was standing right behind her. Rose's whole body-language practically screamed danger, but Tim couldn't do a thing, instead he watched in fear, as the two women hurried past him and left the school.  
Mr Smith, he thought, there was nothing else he could do now. He needed to find him. He needed to bring back the Doctor. Or both Rose and the baby he had seen in his vision would be lost. Tim sprinted to Mr Smith's study, but the teacher wasn't there. So he made his way back down the stairs, hoping he might find Smith on the grounds somewhere, when his eyes fell on the announcement of the village dance for this evening. Would Smith go there? Somehow Tim didn't really think he was the type, but then... he didn't particularly come of as dangerous either and Tim STILL couldn't get the image of the Doctor standing amidst pouring water, fire and pained screams out of his head. So Tim had to hope that either he'd find Smith at Dinner later or if not, he'd have to sneak down into the village, but right now Tim couldn't do a thing about it. He was forbidden from leaving the school grounds and although it rattled him that he would leave Rose without hope for so long, he had no other choice but to return to the dorm and wait or sneak out after dark. Through the window, like the older students sometimes did.  
Luckily it didn't come to that. As Tim arrived at the Dining-hall as soon as humanly possible and fought his way through his fellow students, where he found Mr Smith was already there, talking enthusiastically to the matron. He made his way towards the teacher's table and breathlessly said: “Mr Smith, I am sorry, but I really need to speak with you. It's urgent, Sir.”  
“Urgent? Surely it can wait until after dinner.”, Smith answered, his brow creased thoughtfully.  
“No, Sir, it really can not.”, Tim disagreed vehemently and Smith looked at his normally shy student in surprise, “It's about Rose, Sir. She is in danger.”  
“What?”, there was a definite note surprise and worry in his teacher's voice, as he half rose from his chair, “What are you talking about?!”  
The matron laid a calming hand on his forearm: “I am sure it is not as bad, as it sounds. Where is she, Latimer? Is she allright?”  
“No!”, Tim shouted, almost frustrated that they didn't seem to understand just how BAD this was, “They took her. The family. They want the Doctor!”  
“The Doctor?”, the matron repeated and looked at Smith in surprise, who's eyes darkened in anger: “What are you saying? Have you been... snooping around in my study?!”  
“No... I …. Sometimes I just KNOW things, Sir. Really, I saw them take Rose!”  
“Who?”, the Matron asked.  
“Jenny. But she wasn't really Jenny. There was something else inside!”  
“Jenny?”, Smith snorted, “So she left the school with her friend? Latimer, are you feeling well? Maybe we should...”  
But whatever it was Smith was about to say, Tim never got to hear it, as only five meters to his right someone shouted for them to listen. Tim froze in shock. It was THEM! And he hadn't even noticed them coming in.  
“Mr Clark, what's going on?”, the headmaster asked, looking slightly perplexed at what looked to him like one of his student and a man from the village.   
Baines looked snidely at him, raised some sort of gun and fired. The headmaster simply vanished and some of the students cried out in panic, got up and tried to run and stopped dead, as Baines raised the gun again and pointed it towards the dining hall door, vaporizing it as well.  
“We asked for SILENCE! Now sit back down and listen carefully.”  
The students hurried back to their seats and even the teachers sat frozen, as Baines started pacing on the podium: “We have a couple of questions and a message. We are looking for the Doctor? Has anyone seen him, knows him? He's a time lord. Two hearts. No?”  
Everybody just looked up at him blankly and Tim was insanely grateful that he was actually standing behind them so Baines and Clark couldn't see the totally terrified and shocked looks on the faces of both Smith and the Matron.  
“It doesn't matter, really. We have a message for him and we hope you'll deliver it. Tell it to everyone. School. Village. It doesn't matter. Write it to your families if you must.”, Baines continued, smiling creepily, as Clark took over and said: Doctor, we have your Lover and your unborn child. If you don't surrender yourself to us before midnight on cooper's field, we WILL find out if the lives of an unborn timelord are enough, but we will surely kill both mother and child in the process. So you chose, Doctor. Your Life? Or that of your family?”


	15. Choices

Chapter 15

Choices

Nobody actually tried to stop them, when Baines and Clark left. Most were in shock at just having witnessed someone simply VANISHING into thin air. By a classmate no less. And many were wondering just what the hell the had meant by there little speech? Time lord. Two hearts.... were they just completely insane or was something else going on here?  
Smith seemed to snap out of it much quicker than the other, taking the matron's hand and Tim's elbow, before dragging them back to his study, stemming his hands on his hips and hissing: "Latimer, you better explain. The Doctor... he is a story, a fantasy, nothing else. Why do these... these lunatics believe any of it? And what is that about a child?!"  
But before Tim could answer, the matron cut in: "Rose is pregnant.", she whispered almost inaudibly, her eyes huge and thoughtful.  
"Wait... what?!"  
"Yes, that's why I needed to talk to you. They are going to kill her. Both of them, if you don't..."  
"If I don't what?! And since when is Rose pregnant?! What in the heavens is going on here?!”", Smith interrupted him.  
“She confirmed my suspicion yesterday. It was the reason for her fainting spell yesterday morning.”  
“I... but...”  
“She asked me not to tell anyone. She said the father would be back in about a month and then they'd leave together.”   
“And who exactly is that father supposed to be?”  
“The Doctor. Of course.”, Tim barged in.  
"The Doctor isn't real!"  
"But he is!", Tim shouted, "Or he was. Don't you understand? And even if he wasn't real. THEY believe he is. And they have Rose. That is all that matters, really."  
"You wrote about her. About Rose. In your journal. About her and the Doctor.", the matron continued, her voices still thoughtful, as if she was slowly getting to some sort of conclusion.  
"But that doesn't MEAN anything. I have known Rose all her life. She grew up around me, with her parents being servants in our house as well. She was just the woman I knew best to describe."  
Then why does she treat you like a stranger?", Joan continued and Tim contemplated telling them everything he knew first, but decided against it. It seemed Smith was at least listening to matron.  
"I... she doesn't.", Smith answered weakly.  
"Tim, what is it that you know and how?", matron cut his resolution short.  
"I... I know that Mr Smith is the Doctor in disguise.", he started, but Smith immediately interrupted him: "That is preposterous. Ludicrous. I think I'd remember being some sort of... alien.”  
“But you do.”, Joan answered sadly, “Maybe that is exactly what your dreams are?”  
“No. No... NO. It doesn't make any sense.”  
“You had to hide. I don't know why. Or how. I only know that the Doctor is inside this watch.”, Tim explained quietly and held the fob watch out to him, “I heard it. In my head. When I was in your office yesterday. I... took the watch.”  
“That's... my watch.”  
“I... it told me to protect it. And I was so scared at first, but... we can't let them kill Rose. We just can't!”, Tim tried to get his point across.  
“You were scared? Of what?”, Joan asked, inching closer and looking at the unknown markings lining the small clock.  
“The Doctor.”, Tim admitted.  
“Why?”, Joan asked, her face worried.  
“Because I've seen him. He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe.”  
“Stop it. Stop right there. I am NOT that man..”  
“And he's wonderful.”, Tim concluded, “ I was so scared at first, because I saw so much power, pain, loss. And I saw Rose. And I saw how much he loved her. She is his bright light in the darkness. He would give everything for her and he is so scared, too... It was just too much, so I panicked.”  
“Why is he scared?”, Smith asked quietly, his eyes still fixed in horror at the clock in Tim's outstretched hand.  
“He is terrified of loosing her. Of her leaving. Of something happening to her. Of her dying. And he knows that someday she will and then he'll have to go on without her. He knows that Rose is in danger now.”, Tim continued, tears in his eyes, “I can hear him screaming in my head that we have to save Rose and the baby. It's so.... loud.”  
Smith carefully stretched out his hand, as if the fob-watch was poisonous, but Tim just let it fall into his hand. He closed his eyes as if in pain for a moment. “Forever.”, he whispered and Joan looked at him in shock: “What?”  
“That's what Rose told him: Forever.”  
“If you open the watch, the Doctor will be back and he can save Rose, I am sure of it, we just need to bring him back!”, Tim pleaded, not getting the image of Rose and the baby out of his head.  
“And I will DIE?!”, Smith shouted, his voice oddly strangled. Joan looked at him in horror, before turning towards Tim and saying: “Please leave us for a moment, Tim.”  
“But...”, Tim started.  
“No buts. Now.”, she answered in her most authoritative matron-voice and Tim left the room, sliding down on the floor outside the door and waiting. Hoping he had done enough.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rose couldn't remember the last time she'd been so scared. Krop Tor? No. She'd had the Doctor then. Even after they'd lost contact, she had still always known he was out there and would come for her. Canary Wharf? Olympics? The wire? The sun. No. No. No. Because this time the Doctor wasn't there to save her. It had been her job, her responsibility to protect HIM. He had trusted her and she had failed. Now she sat in an alien-ship, chained to the wall and guarded by whatever had taken possession of her friend and a little girl. Hoping for what? A miracle? The other two had gone to blackmail the Doctor, not knowing that the Doctor couldn't trait himself even if he wanted to. He was gone. Trapped in a tiny fob-watch while his body ran around with a stranger in it.   
“He won't come.”, Rose said quietly, just as much to herself as to her captors.  
“You could just tell us where to find him. That would make it easier.”, Jenny snarled at her.   
Rose didn't even dignify that with an answer. She had tried to convince them before and they hadn't listened, so she had decided to stay silent, but in truth she was simply bored and scared. So she rather talked to her captors than sit in silence.  
“Why exactly are you doing this?”  
“You mean trying to survive?”, the little girl asked, her head tilted and looking at her with real interest. Her soft, childish voice freaking Rose out more than anything. It was a bit like Smith, she decided. They still looked like before, but somebody else was inside, with the major difference that the Doctor wasn't dead. He could still come back. And maybe one day he would. Happily married to Joan, a couple of kids... and someone would remark on his old watch and he'd open it. What would he do then, the Doctor? She couldn't even bare to think about it.   
“Why don't you answer my question?”, the girl's voice cut through her thoughts and Rose looked up in surprise. “What? Oh yes... You trying to survive. It sound like you are fighting an illness, an injustice, but you are not, are you? It is your natural lifecycle.”  
“And how short is it compared to yours? Do you think that's fair?”  
“Honestly? Yes.”  
Something flashed in the little girl's eyes and her mother turned her head towards Rose as well.  
“Explain.”, she hissed.  
“Compared to mine, your lives may seem short, but it is what's natural to you. Just as my life will be laughingly short to that of the Doctor. That's the nature of things. It is what happens, if you travel the stars. One day, I am going to die. Maybe tonight. Maybe in 80 years. It'll be a lifetime for me and a blink for the Doctor. And I wouldn't change it, even if I could. I am human. Simple as that.”  
“You say that now.”, Jenny countered, “But you don't really have another option anyway.”  
“I did.”, Rose disagreed, “There was this machine. There were side-effects, but I am sure the Doctor could have worked it out, if he had really wanted to. But I didn't. And in the end neither did he.”  
“Then he must not really love you. Or you him.”, Jenny concluded nastily and Rose simply gave her a sad smile, the girl on the other hand seemed to find the whole discussion rather interesting.  
“But you could see, do, so much more, if you could live longer.”  
“That is true, yes, but at what cost? In the end I would probably simply lose myself.”  
“And the Doctor? He is really old, isn't he?”  
“Yes, over 900 years.”  
“You really don't think that it is unfair that he got to live for so long and we only get to live for so much less?”  
Rose looked at her thoughtfully. She was rather surprised that the girl was taking such an interest and suddenly she was sure that she wasn't only talking of her family anymore, but Rose as well.  
“No, I don't. Living for so long... I don't think it's a blessing. He has been through so much. So much pain and loss. It's hard for him, especially since he is the only one.”  
“He might not. There is your baby.”  
“Yes. I suppose there is. They could have each other long after I am gone.”, Rose agreed, “I was hoping it might work like that.”  
“It doesn't matter.”, Jenny interrupted them, “Don't forget why we are doing this, Daughter of Mine.”  
“No, Mother of Mine, I haven't forgotten.”, she answered and looked down at her shoes.  
“Then we will not speak of this ever again.”, Jenny concluded and the three didn't talk until the men returned.  
“Mother of Mine, Sister of Mine, we have send the Doctor a message. He has until midnight.”, the boy, Baines, told them.   
“Then we simply wait. If he does not come, we can still take our chances with the child. And if it isn't enough, we will draw him out. No matter, if we have to destroy the whole school in the process.”, Clark continued.  
They set around for hours after that. The family finding ways to occupy themselves and Rose sitting on the floor, bored and hungry. About half an hour ago her stomach had began to protest rather loudly and although Rose would normally have been mortified by that, she really couldn't find herself to care.   
“Here.”, the girl's voice sounded right in front of her and Rose's head snapped up in surprise. She was holding a small bun in her outstretched hand, “I found this in my pocket. Will it stop your stomach from talking?”  
“Rose smiled at the odd way of referring to her hunger. “I believe it would, yes. But my hands are tied.”  
“Oh. Right.”, she tore a piece of the bun and fed it to Rose, who blushed in embarrassment of being treated like a small child.  
“Daughter of Mine, what are you doing there?”  
“I am giving her something to eat. She is human. I don't know. Maybe they starve quickly.”  
“And we need her alive for now. Continue.”, Clark ordered and the girl and Rose continued in the same manner until Rose had eaten the whole bun.  
“What is your name?”  
“I am the daughter.”, the girl answered, looking confused.  
“Well, yes. Their daughter, but not mine. So that can't really be your name, can it? What do people outside your family call you?”  
“Nothing. I haven't met anyone else. I was borne here. On the hunt for you.”  
“Oh.”  
“What is your name then? What do people call you?”  
“Rose. My name is Rose. Rose Tyler.”  
“Rose or Rose Tyler?”, she asked, her forehead creased in confusion.  
“Sure. Rose is the name my parents gave my. Tyler is my family-name. It tells you and others where you belong. See? My father was called Pete Tyler and my mother Jackie Tyler. But we only call us by our first names, when we talk to each other, since we know which family we belong to, really.”  
“So the Doctor gets to call you Rose?”  
“Yes, he does. And you, too.”  
“Rose. I like that.”  
“And what may I call you then?”, Rose asked again, a slight sliver of hope forming in the back of her mind. Maybe it wasn't over yet. This girl.... yes, she was speaking with the voice of a child she had killed, but... she didn't know any better. She only KNEW her family. The hunt. Hate. She hadn't really had a chance for anything else.  
“I don't know. I am the daughter.”  
“Mh.... I'll call you... Dot. Or Dotty. It sounds a bit like “Daughter”, doesn't it?”  
“Dot? Yes, it does. Dot. I like it.”, and Dot grinned happily at Rose, who smiled back. Even if this didn't work out, Rose thought, at least she was sure to have made a bit of a difference for the girl next to her. No matter if she would live for a couple more weeks or millennia.  
“Rose... if...”, but whatever the newly dubbed Dot had wanted to say, got interrupted when the ship's door opened and a man stepped inside. A tweet-clad, trembling man.  
“Mr Smith.”, Baines stated simply. Rose stared at him in shock. Could it be? Could the Doctor have come for her? She tried desperately to get a glimpse of his eyes, to get him to look at her, because no matter how well he could hide and lie, she could always recognize the truth in his eyes. Brown or blue. It had never mattered to her. But he wasn't even looking in her direction, his whole attention fixed on Baines, Clark and Jenny, who were huddled closely together.   
“You.... You said to come here before midnight, if we wanted to safe Rose. That is why I am here.”, he pressed out, his hands fidgeting nervously.  
All three of them sniffed deeply once, before Baines snarled: “We told the Doctor to give himself up. And you are definitely human.” Rose's heart sank. She had allowed herself a moment of hope, but apparently Smith had just tried to safe her on principle, not knowing what he was getting himself into. Bless that man, Rose thought, no matter how appalling she had treated him, he had come for her rescue. And he would die for it. A long with her.  
“I am yes, but... I... don't really understand it myself and I won't pretend I do, not for a second, but he MADE me. He made himself human. Made himself into me and stored his conciousness away. To hide. But I need you to know that Rose is completely innocent in this. And so is the child. So I... I have decided. You can have him. You can have the Doctor's conciousness. Do with him what ever you'd like. And I'll do my best to honour him by taking care of Rose and his child.” He was trembling so badly now, that he tried to steady himself on a nearby column and flipped a couple of switched in the process.  
The family was looking at each other, communicating silently, Rose was sure, about believing his story or not.  
“If we were to believe you, Mr Smith... How did you find out all of this then?”, Jenny asked.  
“One of the students. He is slightly psychic. He told me. Please! From what he told me. About the Doctor... I doesn't sound like a good man. Dangerous, the lad said, but I am sure, he'd be willing to give his own life for that of his family. If he had a choice, I knew he would give everything for them!”, and although he was still looking, speaking, sounding like Mr Smith.... right at these words he looked at Rose and she knew, KNEW without a doubt that there was no way the man in front of her really was Smith. The Doctor had come for her. Like he always did.  
“He made himself human?”, Clark asked, “Amazing. That makes it even easier for us.”  
“So. I... I'll give you this watch.”, the Doctor explained, presenting the fob watch form his suit-pocket, “And you'll give me Rose. Go and leave us in peace.”  
“Yes.”, Dot spoke up next to Rose and she almost jumped in surprise, she'd had completely forgotten that the girl had still been sitting next to her, “Don't you agree, Family of Mine?”  
The other three looked at the girl in surprise, obviously still silently contemplating on what to do.  
“Yes. We can do that, Daughter of Mine.”, Clark agreed.  
“What about you, Rose, don't you have anything to say on us killing your lover?”, Jenny taunted, a nasty smile on the formerly so kind face.  
Rose stood up as dignified as possible with her hands sill bound and the chain fastened to the wall, raised her chin and said: “If it saves my child, then no, I don't have anything else to say to this.”  
“You can give the watch to be.”, Dot proclaimed, “And once I have it, we will let Rose go. Once you have her, I'll give it to my family.”  
“You think I trust you?!”, the Doctor squeaked and Rose was fully prepared to give him an Oscar for his performance.  
“I think we can.”, she responded quietly, giving Dot a careful glance.  
He looked at her searchingly, before he nodded in agreement. Cautiously handing the watch to Dot, who sniffed once and seemed satisfied that the Doctor's story was true. Baines walked towards Rose and unlooked the chain, before pushing her almost forcefully into the Doctor's arms, causing them both to stumble backwards and hitting another set of controls.  
Rose hardly had time to recover, before the Doctor threw his arm around her waist and anxiously almost carried her out of the ship and over the field. She wanted to scream and cry. And hug and kiss. But the Doctor stayed stoically silent, his jaw clenched and his eyes trained towards the tree-line. Rose knew he was trying to get her out of sight before the Family realized they had gotten an old, useless watch, but it still made her feel extremely insecure.  
They had hardly reached the trees, when the Family came running out of their ship. The Doctor turned towards them, his eyes glistening dangerously and a shiver ran down Rose's spine. This was it, she knew, the look that had resulted in both Donna and Martha leaving. But not her. She took a hold of his left hand and squeezed it reassuringly. A second later the whole ship went up in a ball of flames, the force knocking the family off their feet and Rose realized with a sudden jolt that had they not run after them, they would have all died inside that ship. The Doctor hadn't warned them, seemingly allright with their deaths.  
“Doctor?”, she asked carefully, while his face was still fixed on the burning wreckage. Slowly he turned towards her, his eyes dark pools of raging emotions even Rose couldn't decipher that quickly.  
“Rose Tyler.”, he said slowly, his voice muffled and broken.  
“Hello.”, she smiled up at him, trying to lighten the mood. For a moment he just kept looking at her, then threw his arms around her, lifted her up and kissed her until Rose had to come up for air.


	16. Start of a Family

Chapter 16

Start of a Family

"You need to get back to the school. I'll take care of the Family.", the Doctor calmly informed Rose when they finally managed to let go of each other.  
"I... what? I am not leaving you!"  
"Yes, you are.", he replied sternly. Upon seeing her hurt expression, his face softened slightly and he rested his right hand lovingly on her cheek.  
"I need to take care of this. They can not hurt anybody else ever again. And you can't be here for that."  
"You are not going to kill them, are you?", she asked him and what was intended as joke came out as the complete opposite.  
"No. They would have killed you. They would have killed our... No. Death would be a mercy they don't deserve.", his eyes were hard, almost black and Rose knew what ever she could say it would never convince him otherwise. And if she was honest with herself, she didn't even want it.   
"We will talk. About everything. I promise, Rose."  
She simply nodded sadly. Rose had imagined their reunion so many times. What she could say, what he might say.... but this... there was no place for them at this moment.   
"Not Dotty!", she almost yelled and he raised his left eyebrow in question.  
"Dotty?"  
"The girl. She helped us."  
"She killed the girl who's body she is currently living in.", the Doctor responded coldly.  
"Yes, I know.... But she is a child. She didn't really know any better. She didn't have a choice. Please, Doctor, let us give her a chance. She gave me food. She listened when I talked about the natural order of things... She helped us. Please.", she pleaded, and as the Doctor still looked at her sceptically she added: "For me."  
Something changed in his eyes, like a crack in a wall and he nodded before saying: "Wait here.", and turning towards the Family, who still hadn't gotten up, obviously stunt by the fact that they had not only lost there ship, but any hope at all. They weren't even trying to run.   
Rose couldn't hear what was being said, but she saw Dotty getting up and looking in her direction, before turning towards the Doctor again. One last look at her family and she took off, running towards Rose.  
"Rose?", she called as she came nearer.  
"Here.", Rose answered and a moment later Dotty was standing right in front of her, "What... what did he say?"  
"He said I could go.", Dot answered with big eyes, "I should go with you to the school and wait there. I will never see my family again." Her voice was flat, void of all emotion and Rose didn't really know what to do.  
"He said you could leave but would never see your family again?", she was slightly appalled by the notion. Would the Doctor really ask that of a small child? Yes, was the very simple answer.  
"No, he said I'd never see my family again either way. For what we did here. But... I don't know anyone else... I..."  
Rose opened her arms wide and hugged the little girl close. Dot froze up in her arms for a moment, obviously not used to physical closeness like that, before she returned the hug and buried her face in Rose's arm.  
"Yeah, you do. You know me."  
Rose gave one last look towards the field and noticed that it was empty besides the burning wreckage. The Doctor and his prisoners had already left without her noticing.  
"Come on, Dotty, we'll go back to the school.", Rose said, taking the girls hand and leading her away.  
It took them about 15 minutes to reach the building and Rose was surprised to see the place still lit brightly. Normally everything was quite and dark at this hour. Then she remembered that the Family had made their big announcement in the dining hall, people were probably still up and trying to find out what exactly had happened. That was when Rose noticed two figures sitting on a bench in front of the main door. Joan and.... was that the boy that had crushed into her earlier?  
"Rose!", he called and ran forward when he spotted her. Tim. Yes. That was his name.   
Tim looked ready to hug her, when he noticed the girl still holding her hand.   
"What... what is SHE doing here?!", she asked, taking a step back and looking more than a bit panicked.  
"Rose? By God, are you all right?", Joan had followed and to Rose's surprise hugged her briefly, before taking a self-conscious step back.  
"I am fine. Thank you.", Rose answered, not sure what exactly she was supposed to do now. She still didn't know what exactly had happened and how much they knew.  
"Where is the Doctor?", Tim asked, his eyes still trained on Dot, who looked back unabashed.   
"He is imprisoning my family.", Dot asked coldly.  
"Your... you are one of them?!", Joan now took a step back as well, but Rose lay a protective hand on her new charges shoulder, saying: "She helped me. None of this was her fault."  
"Of course.", Joan answered, her professional persona back in place, "What is your name, young lady?"  
"Dot. Or Dotty. I like both.", Dotty answered thoughtfully and Rose smiled thankfully at Joan.   
"What exactly happened? How... how did the Doctor come back?", Rose asked, looking between the odd couple in front of her. Tim gave Joan a carefully glance before opening his mouth, but whatever he had meant to say was cut short, when the best sound in the universe sounded out over the yard: the TARDIS materializing.  
Rose turned around immediately and through her arms around the Doctor again, as soon as he had exited.  
He hugged her back and for a tiny eternity they just held each other, happy to be back together.  
Finally they let go and turned towards the others, who had been standing awkwardly, unsure what to do. The awkwardness didn't really approve though with the Doctor and Rose joining the conversation, no one really seemed to know what to say or do next.   
"I... I picked this up.", Dot hesitantly cut through the silence and held the fob watch out towards the Doctor, who looked at it with sorrow-filled eyes, "Brother of Mine threw it away, but I thought you might like it back."  
The Doctor took the dreaded thing carefully in his hand, before smiling sadly and handing it to Tim.   
"I think you should have this back, really."  
Tim took it almost reverently and paused in wonder: "I don't hear anything anymore."  
"No. It's just a simple watch now, since I am back."  
Joan made a weird, almost strangled sound and turned her face away. Rose felt helpless. What was she supposed to do now? How should she act? She was both so happy that the Doctor was back... and incredibly sad for John and Joan. The Doctor, who never much liked emotional consequences like that, started to fidget nervously next to her, but Rose ignored him for once and walked over to Joan, hugging her ans whispering only for her to hear: "I am so sorry, so very sorry. I know it won't help a bit, but I never imagined someone would get hurt like that. We didn't really think it through."  
Joan didn't answer and Rose hadn't really expected her to, instead the simply turned around and walked back inside, and as sad as it made Rose to watch her leave like that, she knew it was cruel to hope for anything else.  
Tim watched Joan leave and was obviously unsure of what to do.  
"Tim, thank you.", Rose told him earnestly, "Without you and your gift, I'd be dead. We'd be dead. Thank you so much. I didn't even dare to hope for any kind of help, so thank you."  
"Now I know that what I see is the truth.", Tim answered with a sad kind of smile, "It's a big relief."  
"Rose is right. Without you... I don't even want to imagine it.", the Doctor agreed whole-heartedly and Rose turned to him in surprise. It really wasn't like him to acknowledge something like that.  
Time to leave, Rose decided and hugged Tim as well, before taking Dot's hand and stepping onto the TARDIS, breathing in the familiar send of home and just listening to the sounds that made the TARDIS so absolutely amazing. She had expected the Doctor to follow behind them, but he stayed outside with Tim and Rose used the time to enjoy Dotty's reaction.  
"Oh, it is so much better than I expected."  
"Well, if the Doctor needs a little extra time, how about I show you around a bit and we find you a room?", Rose offered with a big smile, walking over to the console and just letting her hands trail over them lovingly.  
"A room?", Dotty asked in amazement.  
"Of course. You'll need somewhere for yourself. To sleep and such, if you are gonna stay with us."  
"I can stay with you? But... are you sure the Doctor will let me?"  
Rose enoticed how she desperately tried not to let her voice sound too hopeful and smiled reassuringly at the girl. "I really think so, yes. There are some rules to follow, I am sure, but as long as you wanna stay with us... and what else are we supposed to do? We can't just drop you off somewhere, can we now?"  
"Mpf.", the Doctor's nondescript grunt sounded behind them and Rose turned around, giving him a hard glare.  
"No, I don't suppose we can. But Rose is right. Rule no. 1. No running off. And I think you should know that I don't tolerate killing.", his voice was still much harsher than Rose found acceptable, but she was prepared to let it slide.  
Dot just looked at him levelly and then at Rose, who nodded. "Ok.", she said, "I understand."  
"That is settled then. Let's find you a suitable room."   
The Doctor followed closely behind as they made their way down a TARDIS corridor. Six doors down, right behind the kitchen, they found a new room, with a nice light-green carpet, a bookcase, desk and several plush looking chairs.   
"Ohhhhh...", Dot smiled next to them, as she put off her shoes and stepped on the plush carpet, "This is mine, really?"   
"There is no bed, that's weird.", Rose interjected and looked questioningly at the Doctor.  
"A bed?", Dotty asked, as if the notion was too strange to think about.  
"Yeah, you'll need to sleep somewhere, won't you?"  
"Sleep?"  
"No, Rose, she doesn't sleep.", the Doctor explained.  
"What? Not at all?! Well, that's nice. Some company for you while I waste my usual eight hours, as you so kindly like to put it. Speaking of which..", Rose answered and yawned.  
"Will you be okay on your own for a bit, Dotty?"  
"Yes, I'd like to look around for a bit, if that is okay?", she looked questioningly at the Doctor, who was still watching her cautiously, but he nodded and took Rose's hand.  
"I'll have to bring us back into the vortex and check a few things. Why don't you go to the med-bay and wait there for me?"  
"The med-bay, really? Can't we just go to bed and talk? I...", but she stopped when she saw the Doctor flinch. He needed this, she realized, he needed to make sure both she and the baby were fine, before he could talk about anything else. She knew this tactic, he was afraid something was wrong and didn't want to get his hopes up.  
"Sure. Please hurry.", she therefore said and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, before turning away and hurrying back to the med-bay.  
Halfway there she felt the whole TARDIS shudder and knew they had left Earth behind. Instead of continuing in her path, she turned around and made her way to their bedroom, finally getting to exchange her uniform for a pair of loose sweatpants and her favourite bright pink top. She paused a moment to push up her top and look in the mirror, noting now that she was out of her skirts, that there was indeed a small, hardly noticeable babybumb, but she didn't think anyone would notice yet.  
Since the Doctor had said he needed some time to check things, she didn't really expect him to walk in on her like that and filched almost guiltily, when he stopped dead , his hand still on the handle and his shocked face on her mid-section.  
"Makes it kinda real, doesn't it?", she tried to joke with a little smile and let her shirt drop back down. The Doctor wasn't answering, his expressionless face still trained on her belly, when he walked over slowly and kneeled down in front of her, carefully lifting the top back up and sending a shiver down Rose's spine. He just stared at the small bumb, almost reverently, before kissing it softly. Rose smiled happily, as the lay her hand on his head and when he rested his forehead on her belly, she noticed his shoulders starting to shake.  
"Doctor?", she asked carefully. There was a sudden wetness on her bare skin and suddenly she realized that he was crying, "Doctor?", she repeated in shock.  
"I'm sorry, Rose, I am so sorry! I put you through this... I... I didn't want to deal with them, I thought they might stop... so sorry... I thought it would all be okay. They could have killed you. They wanted to kill you. And I could do nothing. Nothing! I wasn't there. I am so sorry!"  
"Doctor, please, no! It's not your fault. It's okay. Everything is fine. See? You and me, we're back together!", she tried to convince him, letting herself slide down to the floor and hugging the crying Doctor closely.  
"I failed. I failed you. And I failed our baby before she was even here. I failed. I always do. I am going to let you down. Rose, I am so sorry."  
"No! Doctor, no!", Rose was crying now as well, feeling completely out of her depths. The Doctor NEVER reacted like that. She was so used to having to fight for every little emotional reaction that she didn't even know how to handle this.  
"I don't know what to do! You should leave. Run. Take the baby and take her far away from me. I am dangerous, I'll get you killed. I'll get you both killed, and I'll have to survive alone again. I always do. Everyone dies, everyone leaves, I... can't. I can't."  
"Shush, no, my love, no. It is not your fault. Never your fault."  
She wasn't even sure, if the Doctor could really hear her, but she needed to try. She had known, rationally, that he was hiding so much pain, but to see it laid out like that...  
It was a long time, before the Doctor went silent in her arms and simply continued to hold her close.  
"Wait...", Rose asked carefully, when she was sure the Doctor wasn't crying anymore, "Did you say SHE?"  
The Doctor let go of her to look her in the eyes, an almost sheepish expression on his face, "Oh, yes, no... I mean. A guess. Really... unless you want to know, I mean... I..."  
"It's a girl? Are you sure?", she continued, hope welling up inside of her. She would love a boy, too, of course, but if it was a girl... suddenly there was a gender to attach to her baby. It would not be an it anymore.  
"Yeah, I am.", he answered and when Rose smiled brightly at him, an equally happy smile broke out on his face, "Tim said he thought it was a girl, and well.... I pulled up the file of your last scan, when I checked the system."  
"Wait... Tim? How would Tim have known?"  
"He saw you. He saw you, he saw our daughter, too."  
Rose just looked at him in wonder. "He did?!"  
"Yes.", the Doctor smiled, carefully placing his hand on her belly again, "He said he saw you with a baby, big brown eyes and crazy brown hair."  
"So... exactly what you'd expect from OUR daughter", Rose laughed.  
"Our daughter. I still... it's a lot to take in.", the Doctor admitted, "I never thought this would be possible. SHE should not be possible. Not with the history of my people. Not with our difference in species. And... She has two hearts, Rose, like me. Impossible. Everything about her is just impossible."  
"As I said: exactly what you'd expect from our daughter.", Rose repeated and rolled her shoulders to get the stiffness out. After months of physical labour and hours chained to a wall, sitting on the floor really wasn't the ideal position to be in. The Doctor of course immediately noticed her movement and jumped up, taking both her hands and pulling her towards him.  
"I could do with a good nights sleep, but I guess there is still a lot to talk about.", Rose yawned again.  
"Nahh, you can sleep now, if you want and we talk later.", the Doctor told her off-handidly, but Rose could see that he really wanted, needed to talk more, so she said:" I think I'll be okay for a bit, but maybe lying down for that would be nice. Comfy."  
The Doctor, a happy smile on his face, turned around and finally exchanged John Smith's tweet for the pair of Pjs he had kept after his regeneration. Rose happily snuggled up to him when he crept under the covers, and rested her hand on his chest. Oh, how she had missed the comforting sound of his double-heartbeat. It was the final sign that she was home.   
Despite all the things to discuss, all the important, imminent decisions, Rose was content just lying quietly, listening to the Doctor's heartbeat and let the feeling of home wash over her. She hadn't even been really aware of just how much she had really missed him. She was safe now, in the TARDIS, in the Doctor's arms... for the first time in two months she could really relax. Nothing would ever get to her here.  
"Are you really sure about the girl?", the Doctor asked carefully and Rose smiled when she heard his voice. She knew it all to well: He was worried she'd get angry and was therefore trying to be as off-handed as possible.  
"Dotty? Yes, well... sure is an extreme word, but we couldn't just leave her, could we?"  
The Doctor gave a nondescript grunt as a response.  
"What? Would you have just left her?"  
"Considering that her family was after us to live forever, I do admit that taking her with us might not have been my first idea."  
"She's a child, Doctor, looking at her... I just kinda knew I could help her. WE could help her. She just needs someone to give her a chance."  
"Rose... you do remember, that her lifespan is very short, don't you? Eight weeks, maybe nine... and there is nothing I can do about that."  
"I know.", Rose answered and tilted her head upwards to look at the Doctor's face, "But are you seriously telling me I shouldn't get close to her, because she will live so much shorter than me? Really?"  
She could hear him take deep breaths, before saying: "No, I don't suppose I am."  
There was another stretch of silence after that and Rose felt herself slowly drift off into sleep, when a sudden thought struck her: "Doctor, how did it even work? Did you see things all the time? Or did you come back and suddenly just remembered everything or...", she led the sentence go unfinished, not sure what else there was.  
"No.", he answered slowly, "It was weird, like I was drifting. There were images, impressions, I could see things sometimes when... when he touched the watch. And then when Tim did, they grew stronger. And when I came back, I remembered everything. Tim held the watch a lot, so I've seeing a lot then. What he could see, hear... I saw two of his visions. That's... that's how I knew about the baby."  
"You saw the vision Tim had of me?", Rose asked in astonishment, lifting her head off his chest and set up to look him in the eyes.  
"I did, yes."  
"Oh... That is really not the way to find out about becoming a Dad.", Rose tried to smoke, but the Doctor's eyes darked considerably. "No.", he said quietly, "It really wasn't."  
"I'm sorry.", Rose told him quietly and looked down at her shaking hands, "It was not supposed to be like that. I... you never should have found out like that."  
"I am kind of glad I did.", he admitted and Rose looked up at him in surprise, when his hand closed around her still shaking ones, "I'm not sure, if I could have come back otherwise."  
"What... what do you mean by that?!", Rose asked, suddenly panicked. Didn't he want to come back to her? Did he want to stay John Smith? Stay human? With Joan? Get married, have kids, live a normal life? Was he just doing this out of responsibility?!  
The Doctor obviously realized Rose's distress and hurried to assure her: "No! No, not like that! But he... John Smith... I am not sure, if he would have believed any of this. But when the Family and Tim talked about the baby and Joan told him it was true... And I think... he cared about you a great deal, but he loved Joan... He might not have changed back, if it weren't... I don't know how to say this... he saw his future. With Joan... and their children...", he stopped, willing her to understand what he couldn't put into words.  
Rose stared at him in shock. John had giving up his life, his future, his family... for the Doctor's.   
"He said he couldn't gamble away your life. Our baby's life... on an uncertain future.", the Doctor continued, "But he really did think about it."  
Suddenly it dawned on Rose. "Soooo", she began carefully, "What you are really trying to say is that... what you said on the ship... it was true? He really thought about it?"  
"Yes, he did. He thought about handing me over and taking care of you both. I can't really say I fault him for that, can I? He was right. I AM dangerous. And broken. He could have given you a better, easier life."  
Rose simply stared at him in shock. "Do you really think I would have let him?!", she asked in horror, "That I would have given up on you like that and what? Do you really thing I would have let him help me? The man who'd killed you? Stolen your face and taken you away from me forever? I felt sorry for a bit about how I treated him. He was a nice man, but he wasn't you and I would never EVER exchange you for everyone!"  
"I didn't even think about him, did I? I just thought I'd be human for a while... I didn't... what have I done, Rose?"  
His eyes were big and sad and Rose feared he might break down on her again. She inched closer to him and cupped his face in both of her hands: "You did what you thought was right. We didn't really have time to discuss it, did we? You made a decision and it is over and done with. No use talking about could have beens and might haves. I am sad for him and Joan, I really am. And it might be selfish and stupid of me, but I can't help feeling incredibly happy that I have you back and that we made it out of this."  
"I think about these things a lot.", the Doctor admitted, "About what could have been. About what would have happened, if you hadn't come back. If you had stayed in Pete's world, when I send you away. And I can't even bare the thought now."  
"You would have found someone. Maybe not right away, but you would have. And you would have been okay, I am sure of it.", Rose told him confidently.  
The Doctor smiled sadly, the kissed her lightly and said: "But I don't want to be "okay", I want to be happy. With you."  
They talked for a while longer after that, the Rose snuggled safely in his arms again, content with listing to his hearts and the rumble of his voice in his chest. She told him how she had found out about the baby, how she had phoned Martha and about what had happened with the Family and the Doctor started voicing theories about how their daughter was even possible. It was a jumble of words Rose hardly understood and somewhere between "Radiation" and "Time-Vortex" she finally drifted off to sleep.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When she woke after a solid, deep sleep, Rose stretched sluggishly and set up. She was home. Finally home. The Doctor wasn't lying next to her anymore, but she truly hadn't expected him to. She highly doubted they would go somewhere today, sure that the Doctor would need to run a battery of tests, both on the ship and her. For a moment she considered just going out there in her nightclothes, both then she remembered Dotty and that they weren't alone, so she opened the closed and pulled out a couple of jeans and a shirt. After a hot, long shower the started to get dressed, a process that came to an uprupt halt, when she noticed that she couldn't close her jeans. Rose stood frozen for all of ten seconds. She had noticed that her belly had grown a bit, sure... but this? This was something else instead. What was she supposed to do? Walk over to the full TARDIS wardrobe and find something else? Something loose? She knew it might be the best idea, but somehow she couldn't get herself to do it, instead turning back to her own wardrobe. Skirt or dress? They should fit... but after two moths of skirts and aprons, she really NEEDED something else. Finally, almost at the far back, she found the pair of denim dungarees the had last worn... months ago. It surely felt like an eternity.   
She found the Doctor and, to her immense surprise, Dotty, lying in the console room, both of them half hidden under wires and what looked like still attached parts.  
"Hello?", she called softly, when she was standing directly in front of them.  
What came next was a loud bang and a muffled curse by the Doctor, followed by a soft giggle from the girl, who had exchanged her dress for a pair of bright pink leggings and a long, lime-green shirt that almost reached her knees. When she came up and grinned widely at Rose, she had never looked less threatening. The Doctor followed closely behind her, still grumpily rubbing his head.  
"Nice outfit.", Rose told her, still amazed by the frankly eye-watering combination.  
"I found a room full of cloths yesterday. This was on the corner with thinks that would fit me. Aren't the beautiful?", Dot asked happily, stood up and swirled around for emphasize.  
"It is quite something.", the Doctor answered in a carefully neutral voice, but Rose was happy to notice that there was no note of hostility left in his voice, "Dotty and I are trying to see about the energy dispersion, she is remarkably good at it."  
Rose looked at him blankly. He had tried to explain things to her. So had Jack a long time ago, but Rose still had no idea about any of it. Still, if it gave those two an opportunity to bond, she would happily fake being interested.   
They made their way back to the kitchen, the Doctor insisting it was really important, both for the pregnant Rose and the growing Dotty and Rose was happily trailing behind the other two, as they continued discussing something concerning circuits, but Rose wasn't listening, really.


	17. Family Outing

Chapter 17

Family Outing 

They ended up spending the whole morning inside the vortex. After their nice breakfast and the Doctor and Dotty talking about the TARDIS and something or other mechanical issue, the Doctor had finally snapped and almost dragged Rose to the Med-Bay to run "a few tests", as he put it.  
It turned out to be a lot more than just " a few tests" and Rose's patience was running dangerously low... but she had gotten out of it the night before, so she knew it was only fair to let the Doctor obsess a bit then.   
“Martha offered to check on the baby as well, you know...”, Rose hinted heavily after three hours of lying on a stretcher with the Doctor dancing around her and Dotty sitting cross-legged on the floor, intently studying a biology-book the Doctor had given her.   
Rose wasn't quite sure if he had even heard her, when he didn't bother to respond.   
“Who's Martha?”, Dotty piped up and put the book away.  
“She used to travel with us. She's a good friend.”, Rose explained at the same time as the Doctor made appreciative noises at a monitor above her head.  
“Oh, where does she live?”  
“Earth. But the 21th century. Roughly the same time I'm from.”  
“Ohhhhh, will we go and see her?”, Dotty asked, her eyes big in excitement.  
“I am sure we will. If the Doctor can manage to stop dissecting me.”  
“Oh yes, please! Doctor, can we go? Please?!”, Dotty shouted and the man in question looked up with a slightly confused “Mh?”  
“Can we go see where Rose is from?”  
“Weeeelll....”  
“Doctor, why not?”, Rose asked, her brow furrowed. Was something wrong?  
“I just don't get it. It makes no sense. I don't understand how this baby is possible. And I NEED to know.”  
“How about we let it go for a bit, yeah? Let's go see Martha, have a nice cuppa... And then some chips for dinner.”  
“What? No! Chips aren't healthy. You need...”  
“Don't even start. Not now. Two months. Two bloody months. I need chips. Real ones. From London.”  
“Fine.”, the Doctor caved sulkingly, “But only if you'll take some vitamins. And don't swear in front of the little one.”  
“The baby is the size of what? A walnut?”, Rose said disbelievingly.  
“I meant Dotty.”, the Doctor answered and winked at the girl, who grinned back happily and asked: “Why were those months bloody? Did you kill something?”  
“Never-mind that. Go and get yourself some shoes, yeah?”, Rose tried to distract her and turned towards the Doctor, when the girl had hopped out of the room.  
“You really want to leave the TARDIS? So soon?”, the Doctor looked at her quizzically.  
“Honestly? I wanna see Martha. I would not have gotten through this without her and she should know that we are fine, don't you agree?”  
She saw the Doctor slump a little at her words and regretted them immediately.  
“No, I didn't mean it like that!”, she hurried.  
“Oh, I know how you meant it.”, the Doctor responded with fake cheerfulness. Rose could have slapped herself.   
“And we really shouldn't force Dotty to sit around here all day. Let's go and show her something. “Why did you give her a biology-book anyway?”, Rose changed the subject, stood up and fastened suspenders of her dungarees.  
“Because her brain is processing things at an incredible rate. It's really quite fascinating. I gave her those books, because she was interested... and I thought she might even be able to help figure all of this out.”   
“Doctor.”, Rose told him stoically, “Our daughter is not a puzzle. Can we not take her as the miracle she is? Just for a bit, at least?”  
He obviously wanted to protest, but thought better of it when he saw her stern face, so the Doctor just gave her a searching look, before nodding and turning towards the door.  
“Are you sure you want to visit Martha then? Because I am prepared to bet she will want to examine you as well.”  
“And I will tell her I am tired of it, I am sure she'll understand.”  
The Doctor gave her a doubtful look but before he could respond, Dotty came barrelling back into the room, this time dressed in an eye-watering combination of orange and red. With pink sneekers. For a moment Rose considered saying something about that, but thought better of it, as she saw Dotty's proud face when she said: “The cloths here are so beautiful, I can wear something different everyday!” and the Doctor smiled down at her as he noticed her footwear and tussled her hair. Who was she to think herself fashion-police and spoil a child's fun.  
“In case we go somewhere cold remind me to get you a scarf, I think you'll like that particular one very much.”, the Doctor grinned and lay his hand protectively at the small of Rose's back, guiding her down the corridor.  
“Ok, girls. Hold on tight!”, he told them happily, when they reached the consoul-room and he started to move the TARDIS, “I do not want anyone here to fall over and hurt themselves!”  
Rose rolled her eyes in font annoyance, but held on tight none the less, when the loud groaning sounded and the TADIS began to shiver. Dotty was clinging to the reeling next to her, laughing happily and Rose allowed herself a moment to think about just how quickly the girl had taken to her new life. Not even 24 hours ago, she had been with her family and now? Maybe it had something to do with her short lifespan, Rose wondered, or maybe she and the Doctor had talked a lot more last night than either of them had let on. Or maybe it was just in her nature to make the best of every situation. With a small jolt they landed and despite holding on tightly, Dotty fell over with an elated peel of laughter.  
“Martha's living room. Nice and tidy.”, the Doctor informed them proudly and took Dotty's hand to heave her back on her own two feet.  
“Oh Doctor”, Rose reproached softly, “Couldn't we have landed outside and then just walk over here?”  
“But why?”  
“Because it is a bit rude to just show up in someone's flat like that, that's why.”  
“But she is your friend...”, Dotty said thoughtfully, “Why would she mind?”  
“Exactly!”, the Doctor shouted triumphantly and Rose threw her arms up in defeat: “I can't win with the two of you.”  
A soft knock on the door stopped the Doctor from answering and Rose almost tripped over her own feet, hurrying over to open it for Martha, who ran inside and threw her arms around Rose, laughing happily.  
The two women held each other for a bit, both not knowing what to say, before Martha finally let go and turned towards the Doctor: “And you, you.... idiot. Making yourself human?! Seriously?! Couldn't you have at least come here? So Rose wouldn't be on her own?” Despite her harsh words Martha hugged him tightly as well, but Rose saw the way the Doctor flinched at Martha's words and sighed quietly. Martha didn't know, of course, how guilty the Doctor already felt about the whole thing.  
Dotty quietly peeked out from behind the console, seemingly uncertain about what to do and when Martha's gaze landed on her, she froze, took a step back from the Doctor and starred at the little girl in horror.   
“How long exactly has it been since you last called me, Rose?”, Martha asked carefully and for a split second Rose didn't understand what Martha was going on about, before the whole thing suddenly clicked: “Oh, no no no, Dotty is our newest companion! It's been only a couple of days.”  
Martha deflated visibly and smiled: “Oh thank God, you had me scared there for a bit. I really thought you might not give me the chance to dote on a baby and buy stupid onesies with funny jokes on them.”  
“You can buy as much of those as you want to, if you like.”, Rose grinned happily.  
“Why do you cloths children in funny jokes?”, Dotty asked, brow furrowed in confusion.  
“Because it's fun.”, the Doctor offered, sounding slightly unsure himself, Rose noticed highly amused.  
“And they are small and can't defend themselves against us taking future blackmail material.”, Martha laughed, oblivious to Dotty's expression changing from confused to alarmed, when she came to stand in front of Martha, her voice chillingly threatening: “You will not harm the child in any way.”  
Martha's smile froze, as she looked at the colourfully-dressed girl taking a stand in-front of her.  
“Well, no, of course I won't.”  
“It's just a joke, Dotty, not a threat. Really, Martha means no harm at all.”, Rose tried to defuse the situation.  
There was an awkward silence after that, with Dotty standing partly in-front of Rose, as if to bodily shield her, the Doctor nervously shifting from one foot to the other and Martha standing between them, mortified.  
“Tea?”, tried Martha.  
The Doctor and Rose agreed eagerly, Dotty still starred at Martha. Unblinkingly.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tea turned out a lot more enjoyable than Rose feared. They sad down and talked for a bit and when Dotty got bored, Martha showed her how to work the TV, which seemed to quite fascinate her, although she took one of Martha's books and read and watched simultaneously. With Dotty occupied enough not to listen to the adult conversation, Rose and the Doctor told Martha everything that had happened since the last phone call and when they finished Rose really expected their friend to have a million questions, instead Martha just nipped at her tea and looked thoughtfully towards the living room.  
“I honestly don't know what to say.”, Martha admitted and smiled. “ A baby. A girl. It's so great, guys, I do expect you to come and visit me all the time.”  
“We'll have to come up with something anyway.”, Rose answered, looking pointedly at the Doctor, “I have an aunt and cousins here in London. I haven't seen them in a long time and... well, I think they will forgive that with everything that happened with Mum. Or with what they think happened. But if I have a baby without telling them...”  
The Doctor stiffened beside her, something shifting in his gaze.  
“Yeah, family is so important. I loved growing up with my siblings and cousins.”, Martha grinned and turned towards the Doctor: “How about your folks then? Have you already told them?”  
Rose froze, her cup of tea stopping halfway back on its way to the table, her gaze zooming in on the Doctor, whom she expected to come up with a smile and a flippant reply, instead he simply stood up and placed his cup in the sink. “Time to go. Way past Dotty's bedtime.”  
With that he left the kitchen without looking back and Rose finally put her cup down, getting up as well.  
Martha looked at her friend in horror. “Oh no, what did I do?”  
Rose was torn between answering her friend and running after her obviously hurting partner. She knew it was bad, if he didn't even try to put on a brave face.  
“I am sorry, Martha, I think we really need to go. Call me, yeah? I am sure we'll come visit again soon.”  
“Yes. Right.”, Martha answered, obviously hurt by the way Rose had brushed her off.  
“Look... I am sorry, Martha, I just...”, Rose started, feeling guilty about how great a friend Martha had been for her recently, but the Dotty's voice interrupted her.  
“The Doctor has gone to start the TARDIS. He wanted me to come and get you.”  
Rose grimaced, and smiled at Martha apologeticly. “I'll explain soon. Promise.”  
The two women hugged briefly and Martha offered her hand in good-bye to Dotty, who took it after thinking about it for a moment.  
Rose and Dotty made their way back into the TARDIS after that and they had hardly closed the door, when the Doctor threw them into the vortex. His gaze still steely. So he hadn't yet managed to put his cheery façade back on and as much as Rose often wanted him to open up more... right then it scared her more than she was ready to admit even to herself.  
“I'll go read. Found the library this morning.”, Dotty declared and took off, obviously having caught onto the Doctor's sudden bad mood.  
Rose slowly walked over to where the Doctor stood, his arms perched on the console, his head hung low and hidden from view.  
“Doctor? I won't ask if you are all right. I think I kinda know the answer to that.”, Rose hugged him from behind, resting her chin between his shoulder-blades and just trying to be comforting.  
“It's kinda been a long day.”  
“Maybe you were right and we should have stayed inside.”, Rose offered at a lame attempt at a joke.  
“No, Dotty wanted to know where you were from. Speaking of which, I think you insisted on chips. From London specifically.”, suddenly he straightened up, a bright small back in place. Rose sighed, the walls were up again.  
“So... how about you get Dotty and I land us somewhere nice... and then we go exploring for a bit. I don't know... you are pregnant. Do you need to shop? You probably need to shop. Your cloths will get too tight, as you get bigger and bigger. I can already see it. That's why you are wearing this cloths, yes? Nothing else fits?”  
Rose blinked at him. She really wasn't sure if she was offended by this or not. Was she? In the end she just decided to let his rambling go and turned around to get the young girl. Maybe shopping in London would be nice, she hadn't done that in ages. Visited her old favourite shops... and now with the Doctor she wouldn't even have to worry about money, she could just buy whatever she wanted! And she would totally make the Doctor carry it.  
“Dotty!”, she called, when she reached the massive library and the TARDIS shivered around her. The Doctor had landed them, just as Dotty's head stuck out from behind a sofa. She had apparently been lying on the floor, with her stomach on a cushion, at least a dozen books strewn around her.  
“Where are we now?”  
“Still in London. Come on! We're gonna show you where I come from, do some shopping, see the sights.”  
“Yes!”  
And that was exactly what they did. In retrospective Rose was pleasantly surprised at how long the Doctor survived on Oxford Street before he started whining and she secretly feared it might be because he felt guilty about leaving her alone for weeks. They did make quite the odd trio, Rose thought. And in the end they ended up buying a lot more than she had thought. Not only for her, but for Dotty as well, who was still fascinated by everything bright. They did get a few odd or judging looks however and Rose knew she probably looked like a teen-mom, but she honestly didn't care. She had stopped caring too much once she had started travelling with the Doctor.  
They found their way back to the TARDIS hours later, laden with bags full of shopping, well-fed on deliciously greasy chips and (in Rose's case) really exhausted.   
“This was nice.”, Dotty declared happily, her hands clasping her own bag, “I like the time you are from. Colours. Lots of colours.”  
“That is certainly true.”, Rose agreed, although her own new cloths were certainly a lot less colourful that her young charges.  
“Why don't you two go and pack your stuff away.”, the Doctor told them absent-mindedly, his brainy-specks perched on his nose and his forehead furrowed in confusion, as he studied one of the monitors intently.  
“Something the matter?”, Rose asked.   
“No. Not really. I had the TARDIS do some tests while I we were gone and there are some funny readings. Might have to... you know.... check it out.”  
“Can we maybe do that tomorrow morning? I am kinda tired.”  
“Sure. Yes. Of course...”  
“Buuuuut....”, Rose continued as the Doctor's voice trailed off.  
“Weeeeeell, it's an unusual time reading. Might be a crack. An anomaly. Something temporary...”  
“So you are saying after I waste my usual eight hours it might be too late?”, she resigned herself.  
“Possibly. But that doesn't matter. If you are tired...”  
“Doctor”, Rose stopped him with a small smile, “If you want to find out what is going on there, then we will. I am not that tired. Don't worry about me.”  
“Are you sure?”, he asked, but Rose knew he really wanted her to say yes, so she nodded despite herself.  
“I'll go get Dotty, you relocate us.”  
“We need another system. It's stupid that one if us always has to go find her.”  
“On of us? You mean me, right?”, Rose grinned and left the console-room. She dropped of her bags in their bedroom and found Dotty in hers, happily stowing away her new stuff in her wardrobe and apparently colour-coding it.  
“The Doctor found something worth investigating!”  
“Really? I thought you required rest?”  
“Nah, I'll be fine for a bit. It's probably gonna be him, running around with his screwdriver in hand and making weird noises. It's better than watching TV.”  
“Uh, I liked Martha's TV. But some of these people inside it were weird.”, Dotty answered with big eyes.  
“Weird how?”  
“It looked to be a program on human mating rituals, I think. Not that interesting, to be honest. But there was something on earth's history and I did quite like that.”  
Rose snickered. Human mating rituals? The poor girl had probably stumbled on a soap.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A little while later they landed in-front of a beautiful, if terribly run-down, house. The Doctor excited first, his sonic screwdriver drawn like some sort of weapon, a mad grin on his face. Dotty followed closely behind, almost as exited as the Doctor, her gaze drinking in everything in it's wake. Rose on the other hand was way less enthusiastic. She was way more exhausted than the had let on, but she really hadn't wanted to spoil the Doctor's fun. Or Dotty's for that matter.  
“Whatever it is seems to come from inside the house. Alons-y!”, he exclaimed and let the way.  
The house really was beautiful, Rose thought, as she walked around in it, trying to figure out what had set of the TARDIS' scans. Dotty had quickly lost her enthusiasm and was know instead clinging to Rose's hand, as the duo wandered upstairs, with the Doctor still running around downstairs. Rose took a step back in horror, as she reached the second floor. There was a statue standing right across from her. An angel, hands covering its face. There was a odd sensation, as if something was near her, tugging at her, but before she could make it out it was gone.  
“Rose”, Dotty whispered, her face turned turned towards Rose, “I don't like this. Please let us go back.”  
“Agreed.”, Rose answered and turned around to hurry back downstairs, when she heard the Doctor shout up at them: “Rose! Are there angels with you?! Look at them! Keep looking at them!”  
The panic in his voice made the hairs on her arms stand up, but before either she or Dotty could turn back around, there was a strange, terrifying feeling, as if her insides were turned out and she lost the ground beneath her feet.  
The next thing she knew, she was standing in an alley, Dotty's hand still securely in hers. Before she could make any other detail or even think about what might have happened, she was sick over a trashcan.   
“Urgh”, she groaned, sliding down to sit on the probably very dirty ground, “Are you okay?”  
Dotty nodded nervously, her eyes frantically searching everything. She sniffed the air, her face scrunched up in confusion.  
“It smells... different.”, she told Rose nervously and set down beside her, cuddling into er as close as possible.  
Rose looked at her in confusion. What did she mean by different? She put both her arms protectively around the girl. “Don't worry about it. The Doctor will come and find us soon, you'll see. He will know what happened.”  
Dotty nodded, but still looked very worried. They set like that for what Rose thought must have been at least five minutes, before there was a flash of light and the Doctor appeared right were they had only minutes previously.  
“See? There he is.”, Rose smiled.  
“And where is the TARDIS? How will we get back?”, Dotty asked and Rose's smile froze in shocked realization.


	18. Worries, fears and guilt

Chapter 18

Worries, fears and guilt

 

Before Rose could even contemplate getting up, the Doctor had spotted the two of them and ran over, crouching down in-front of them.  
"Are you okay? Are you in any way hurt?!", he asked, his frantic eyes searching both their faces.  
"No, we are fine. But where exactly are we?", Rose answered, her arms still protectively encircling Dotty.  
"London, I'd say.", the Doctor answered calmly, "The problem isn't where, it's when."  
"The air smells different.", Dotty repeated.  
"Come on, girls. Let go somewhere else. A café maybe.", the Doctor told them, taking one hand each and hoisting them to their feet.  
A faint drizzle had started around them and Rose shivered slightly, her short cloths no match for the cold weather.  
The Doctor, noticing his partners discomfort, took off his long coat and carefully draped it around her shoulders. She would have protested, normally, knowing how important his coat was to him, but Rose was freezing so much that she was just thankful. Dotty and her many layers seemed to be fine and Rose really wasn't sure how much the cold affected her at all.  
They walked in silence for a couple of minutes until they found a small café between the housing surrounding them.   
The girl behind the counter gave them an odd look when they entered but didn't comment, when they took a table furthest from the door and huddled closely together.  
Rose fished for the money she knew to still have in her pocket and placed it on the table. The Doctor had given her some for their shopping. Quite a lot actually. She'd rather not think about how exactly he had gotten all that.   
“Tea?”, the Doctor asked, a false cheer on his face, but Rose shook her head.  
“I'd rather have a hot chocolate.”  
“What's that?”, Dotty asked quietly and Rose looked at her in shock. In the less than two days she had actually known the girl, Rose had felt like she wasn't scared easily and eager to see new and exciting things, but now she was huddled closely into Rose's side, her voice tiny and scared.  
“It's delicious and very sweet. Perfect, if you are a bit cold.”, Rose explained, giving her a reassuring smile.  
“I'll try one.”  
“Three hot chocolates it is.”, the Doctor proclaimed, took the money and walked over to the girl, who had kept watching them almost suspiciously.  
“Don't be scared.”, Rose whispered once the Doctor was out of earshot, “We will be fine. We have been in a lot of terrible situations and we made it out, yeah? And we'd never let anything happen to you anyway.”  
Dotty nodded quietly, “I'd still like to be back on the TARDIS. It's nice there.”  
“That's true, but we will make it back. Don't worry too much about it. The Doctor knew something was wrong before we got here, remember? He tried to warn us. He'll know what to do.”  
“Here we are, girls, nice hot chocolate. And banana waffles.”, the Doctor reappeared beside them and placed a tray on the table.  
Rose narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Hot chocolate AND waffles? That did kinda look like pity-food. Maybe she had been too quick in reassuring Dotty after all.  
“What exactly happened, Doctor?”, Rose asked, slowly drinking her hot chocolate.  
“Weeping angels. Those statues? They weren't statues at all. Weeellll, they were. When you were looking at them. Otherwise not.”  
“You do realize you are not making a lot of sense right now, yeah?”, Rose starred at him.  
“Ohhhhh, I read about them!”, Dotty exclaimed, big-eyed and with a small chocolate beard, “The lonely assassins. They feed of time energy.”  
“Correct. Molto Bene ”, the Doctor grinned proudly and affectionately ruffled Dotty's hair.  
“Well, it's great that you two know what's going on, but I most certainly don't.”, Rose was torn between being annoyed about not knowing anything and being happy that those two seemed to get on so well despite the Doctor's misgivings about her joining them in the past.  
“They are very old, Rose. As old as the universe, or nearly so. Their defence system is almost perfect, the moment they are looked at, observed by any living creature, the turn into stone. Quite literally. That's why they cover their eyes, they can't risk looking at each other.”  
“If they'd look at each other, they'd turn into stone and would never be able to look away again.”, Dotty finished for the Doctor. She did, Rose thought, look rather smug about the whole thing. At least she wasn't trembling with fear anymore.  
“And they sent us here? Whenever here is. Why?”  
“They are creature of the abstract, the feed on potential energy. They sent people back into the past and let them live out their lives there. And in the future they feed of the energy of the days you could have had. And we are in 1969. February. I asked. London.”  
“Great. And how do we get back home?”  
“We are kinda... sorta... stuck.”, the Doctor answered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.  
Rose blinked. Once. Twice. Then she decided calmly not to freak out. Not now. She had just been stuck in 1913. 1969 didn't really sound so bad in comparison. First problems first.   
“We'll have to come up with something then. If we'll be staying here. Doesn't matter if it's for a short while or indefinitely, we need a place to stay. How much money do we have on us? Because your trick with the sonic screwdriver and an ATM won't work here.”  
“No, you are right. No ATMs in 1969. Ok, let's empty our pockets.”  
And so they did. With their shopping spree just hours away they were lucky to at least have a lot of cash on them. It could have gone a lot worse, Rose realized, they'd never normally have a little over a 2000 pounds on them. Well, the Doctor did. Hidden away in his enormous pockets. At least it meant they wouldn't starve or have to stay on the streets somewhere.   
The Doctor was still rummaging through his pockets, coming up with things now and then. There was already an impressive heap of unrelated things spread out in front of him. Stones. String. Jelly babies. The Santa remote from last Christmas... and a Manila folder. The Doctor's gaze was trained on it, his brow creased in concentration, when he put on his glasses and study the paper intently.  
“Do you remember when we got this, Rose?”  
“Not really, no.”, Rose admitted and took a bit of her waffles. She was starving. And tired. And cold. And generally miserable.  
“That girl. Sally Sparrow. She said: “One day you're gonna get stuck in 1969. Make sure you've got this on you.” She knew, Rose, she knew. Which means there is a way back!”, the Doctor laughed triumphantly, and Rose felt a heavy weight lift of her shoulders.   
“I remember now. She recognized me, too. Said something about me not being... and then she stopped. Which means she knew me while pregnant. A couple of months. Top. Oh, thank God.”  
The Doctor opened the folder carefully, studying it intently. “This will take time. It looks as if... as if it is a record of what we did to get back, a manual so to speak. There are things we'll have to figure out. Stuff I'll have to build. But we can do it, we'll make it back home.”  
Rose returned his happy smile gratefully. Although she still thought there were worse things than being stuck somewhere with the Doctor, she wasn't particularly enjoying the thought of giving birth to and raising an alien baby in 1970s London.  
Her gaze wondered to Dotty, who had been uncharacteristically quiet these last minutes and her smile froze. Stuck in London for a couple of months. It might not sound too bad for her or even the Doctor, but Dotty... that was her whole lifespan.  
“Dotty... I am so sorry.”, she said quietly.  
The Doctor had caught up on the situation as well, trying to give the girl a reassuring smile.  
“It's not so bad here, really. When I first started travelling, I came to England in the 60s. I was... with my granddaughter, actually, Susan was her name. She... she wanted to get to know humanity. Went to a school here and all that.”  
Rose's head shot around to look at him. He didn't just talk about his past like that. About his family. EVER. He had told her little things, snippets really. Sometimes at night, in the dark, when she was drifting of to sleep and he had settled himself in bed next to her. To read or just think. Then yes, sometimes he would talk. But in the mornings he would never acknowledge that such a conversation had taken place. The memories were too terrible to be allowed to see the light of day.  
“School. Like the one were I met you?”, Dotty asked, her voice thoughtful.  
“Yes, essentially. But with both boys and girls. And without the staying there. She just came back to the TARDIS when school was over.”  
“Could I do that then? If we have to stay here can I go to school with some human children?”  
“Would you want to, though?”, Rose interrupted carefully, “You'd have to go to school with kids that look your age. They'll mature much slower than you. Learn slower, too. Not that you get bored.”  
“But school is not for too long, is it? Humans need sleep. I could still read and learn what I like once school is over. I'd like that, I think. Learn human behaviour better. This body is human, I'd like to understand it.”  
Rose flinched involuntarily at the reminder of just how Dotty had gotten this body. She had forgotten, for a brief moment, just how dangerous this small person in the neon clothes could be.  
“We'll need somewhere to stay. A hotel for the night, a flat after that. Names. Identities. Maybe a job. The money should help out for a while, not for too long though. I can work in a shop again. Did it before. Stuff like that doesn't change, so I could...”  
“Rose.”, the Doctor interrupted her rambling quietly and squeezed her hand, “Don't worry about all of that now. You are tired and need your sleep. Let's find a place to stay.”  
“I am not that tired.”, Rose tried to object, but both the Doctor and Dotty looked at her sceptically, so she just gave up.   
The Doctor went back to the counter to get an address for a hotel, before they left the small café.  
They didn't have to walk far, but Rose was still shivering again when they reached the small hotel, even though the Doctor's coat was wrapped around her.  
The hotel was nice, cosy and very clean.  
“Oh, hello!”, the Doctor walked up to the smiling receptionist, “We need a place to stay for tonight. Possibly longer. Depends.”  
The smartly dressed man behind the counter gave their little group a quick once-over, obviously not sure what to make of them, but deciding to play it safe.  
“Will that be a two bedroom suit or three, Sir?”  
“Two.”, the Doctor chirped happily and took Rose's hand.  
“I don't need one. I don't sleep.”, Dotty declared, “I can read in a normal room.”  
Rose saw the Doctor flinch beside her and the receptionist crease his forehead in confusion.  
“Of course you need a bedroom, dear.”, Rose smiled down at her indulgently and ruffled her hair, “Kids. Always think a holiday is staying up all night.”  
“That is true, Ma'am.”, the man replied and gave her a genuine smile, “Just saw that again on New year's eve.”  
“Ah yes, but I was the same when I was younger.”  
“I fear we all were, one day our kids will hopefully have the same trouble with theirs.”, he answered and Rose decided to like him. Although he had clearly been friendly in the beginning because it was his job, she felt like he was a truly decent person.  
“So two bedrooms it is then. One night for now?”, he continued, back in business mode and his gaze turned to a huge book in front of him.  
“For now yes, probably longer.”, the Doctor answered, although way less enthusiastic than before.  
“And under what name, Sir.”  
“Tyler.”, the Doctor answered immediately and a warm feeling spread through Rose's body. Tyler. Not Smith.  
“Dr John Tyler and family.”  
“Perfect. There are a couple of forms for you to fill out. Let me ring for Albert and he will take you and your luggage upstairs.”, and he did just that.  
“We don't have any.”, the Doctor stated simply and earned himself another odd look.  
“Our stuff is still in our car.”, Rose hurried to explain, “We had a small accident tonight. We didn't mean to stay in London. Now we have to have it repaired. That's why we are this late and a bit unprepared.”  
“Oh, how terrible!”, the man, who, Rose thought, seriously needed a name, answered, his eyes big with worry, “Please tell me, if I can help you in any way. Just ask for Douglas.”  
“Will do, thank you, Douglas.”, Rose smiled at him warmly, when a young man entered through a side-door and looked at Douglas expectedly, who handed him some keys.  
“Is it okay, if I fill out these forms and my family can already go to the room? They are exhausted. It has been a long day.”, the Doctor asked, reaching over to take a look at the information required.  
“Of course, Sir. That is no problem at all.”  
The Doctor squeezed Rose's hand reassuringly one more time, before he turned his full attention to the form, his left hand already fidgeting with the psychic paper, should he need it.  
Albert let Rose and Dotty to the third floor, were he showed them to a moderately sized suit with a small sitting room,two bedrooms and a bathroom. There even was a bookcase next to the comfortable looking couch, which was the first thing Dotty seemed to be interested in.  
“You'll be all-right out here then?”, Rose asked hopefully, too tired really for anything anymore.  
“Yes, I am. These books should last me through the night.”, Dotty answered distractedly, having pulled three off their shelves.  
Rose didn't bother with an answer, instead wishing the girl a good night and entering the bigger bedroom, two small beds standing separately, a small aisle between them. Rose contemplated simply pushing them together, but decided against it. They looked heavy and she was tired. And pregnant. Right, she thought, still need to get used to that. Being careful is important now.  
For the lack of any better option, Rose simply stripped down to her underwear and snug under the covers. She was asleep before her head even hit the pillow.

Rose as so exhausted, she hardly noticed the screeching sound next to her. Her brain registered it, yes, but she still managed to sleep through it. She didn't even wake up, when the Doctor snuggled in behind her, his arms protectively stretched out over her abdomen. She hadn't really thought he'd come to bed, she knew for a fact he had slept the night before. But even those thoughts were only secondary now. Sleep. Sleep was really all she wanted. And the Doctor's reassuring, steady presence behind her.

She awoke the next morning to find the Doctor, wide awake and reading, his long legs stretched out in front of him and his right hand absent-mindedly stroking her hair.   
“I didn't think you'd come to bed last night or I would have waited up.”, Rose mumbled, voice heavy with sleep. She closed her eyes again, maybe it was still early and she could just dose off.  
“I missed you.”, the Doctor answered simply and Rose's eyes shot open in surprise.  
“You did?”, she asked carefully, scared of driving him away.  
“We've only been back together for one night. I just... didn't want to leave you out of my sight. You just attract trouble. I might never let go of your hand again.”  
“It's not that bad.”, Rose tried to defend herself, when the Doctor responded with an undignified snort. And actual snort.  
“I let you out of my sight for what? Five minutes? And you get zapped into the past by a weeping angel!”  
Rose chose not to even dignify that with an answer, instead opting for a question herself: “You knew what the angels were. How did they get you, too?”  
“I knew they had you and Dotty. So I went upstairs, found the one that must have touched you. And blinked.”, the Doctor answered, his voice completely void of emotion. Rose moved her head so she could look him in the eyes and for once he was not trying to avoid her shocked gaze.  
“You let them?”  
“Yes. I might not have been able to find out where you were otherwise. I'd never risk losing you somewhere in time. Not ever.”  
“But...”, Rose started carefully, her throat feeling incredibly tight, “You didn't know about the file beforehand. How did you know we'd find a way back?”  
“I didn't. But stuck here with you, that's not so bad.”  
“Yeah?”, Rose echoed their previous conversation with a small smile.  
“Yeah.”  
They lay in silence for a good while longer after that, with the occasional rustling of paper and Rose slipping in and out of sleep. She was too comfortable to really get up yet. Sure, it wasn't their bed on the TARDIS but it was still so much better than her bed in the school.  
“I can't believe it's only been two nights, since we found each other again. Two nights since we have Dotty with us. Two nights since...”  
“Since I know about the baby?”, the Doctor finished for her.  
“Yeah. I feared you'd freak out more.”, Rose admitted.  
The Doctor didn't answer and Rose turned her head again to have a better look at him, only to find him staring at her unblinkingly.  
“What exactly did you expect me to do?” he asked, his voice calm, but Rose could practically feel his whole body vibrate with tension.  
“I don't really know.”, she answered, turning her head away again.  
“Yes, you do.”, he insisted, his voice sounding harsh and significantly louder than before, “Did you think that I would... what... scream? That I would say it couldn't be mine? That I would... what?! Throw you out?!”  
Rose flinched guiltily and the Doctor's face turned white, his eyes dark pools of anger and hurt, as he set up and got out of bed.  
“Did you really think that? That I would just... Do you think so little of me, really? After everything we have done and said, you thought I would leave you?! Is that the kind of man you think I am, because if it is, please tell me right now!”, in the end he was full on shouting at her and Rose could feel the tears well up in her eyes.  
“No, Doctor! That is not it. I was worried, yes, but not... I... A baby, we never even talked about it and... I was just scared. I was alone and scared and I... no, I didn't think you would, but I needed to prepare myself in case I...”  
“In case you had to become a single mum because I clearly am the kind of man your mother always warned you about. Gets you pregnant and runs. That's it then. Great. Brilliant in fact. Now I know what you REALLY think of me.”  
“Don't be unfair!”, Rose shouted back, feeling herself getting angry as well, “No, I do not believe that of you. I told you: I was scared and I panicked. We are talking about you here. The man, who hates domestics and can't even stay for shepherd's pie.”  
“That was ages ago. I was a different man back then! And you know that! I even went and spend Christmas with you and your family!”  
“You are completely overreacting! I told you: I was scared and alone. So yes, I let myself think about what I would do, if the worst should happen, that does not...”, but the Doctor didn't let her finish.  
“Scared and ALONE. That's the point, really, isn't it?! I left you alone for two whole months and that's what this is all about.”  
“No, it's not. Not for me at least! But I think it is for YOU! So if you are angry at yourself for that: Fine. But don't turn me into the bad guy here. I did nothing wrong. Nothing at all!”  
This time, the Doctor did not answer,. He just starred at her, hands on his hips, his face paper white and his eyes blazing dangerously. Rose could not remember the last time she had seen him so angry and certainly never directed at her.   
They stood like that for what felt like an eternity. Rose, half laying, half sitting in bed, wondering if the Doctor would run again, and the Doctor towering over her, seemingly too angry to speak.  
Then, when Rose had just made up her mind to try and calm him down again, the Doctor visibly deflated, his shoulders hunched and his gaze dropped. He let himself fall down on the bed next to Rose again.  
“I am sorry. You are right.”, he admitted quietly, his hunched frame turned away from her.  
“Doctor...”, she tried carefully, placing a hand on his shoulder.  
“These things... they are what I am afraid of I might do.”  
“You are thinking of leaving me?”, Rose asked, trying desperately to hide the hurt in her voice.  
“No! But I am scared that some day I might try to. I'd find a very good reason, of course, to safe you, to safe the baby. If I do, Rose, please promise me you won't let me. Please promise me, you'll slap me and tell me I am a... masochistic idiot.”  
Rose felt tears run down her cheeks when she heard his defeated tone. She had always known that he carried a lot of hurt and guilt and part of her felt incredible privileged that he had chosen HER to open up to, but another part of her was scared. What if he was finally ready to show her everything about himself and she was just not strong enough to handle it?  
“I would have done that anyway.”, she tried to lighten the mood and pulled at his shoulder to turn him around. She finally lay down again, his head resting close to her chest as she cradled it with her arms, “You run away and I follow. I think that's our thing. And I am sorry that I doubted you, even for a second. I really am. I just... my mum was alone, most of my friends came from broken homes. I honestly don't really know how this works.”  
“I don't really have a clue either.”, the Doctor admitted carefully, a little laughter stealing back into his voice, “Imagine that: Me admitting to not knowing something.”  
“The universe might just collapse.”, Rose smiled.  
“This won't be easy.”, the Doctor said, his voice sombre again, “Our life is dangerous and I don't really know what to do about it. Even if we don't go looking for trouble, it will find us anyway. And a baby... a half human half time-lord baby... I don't even know what that means. How it... how SHE is possible at all. I don't know anything. And that scares me endlessly.”  
“But we'll figure it out, yeah? The two of us?”  
“Yeah. We will.”


	19. The Tylers

Chapter 19

The Tylers

When Rose found her way into the sitting area about an hour later, she was greeted by Dotty, who watched her suspiciously. With a sudden jolt of shame Rose realized that Dotty had heard her and the Doctor. The shouting must have carried quite a bit. She probably hadn't heard the exact words though. And hopefully not what had happened after.  
"Morning, Dotty. How was your night?"  
"I read through the whole bookshelf.", Dotty informed her, "But Paul said he has more books downstairs, I can just take a look later."  
"Paul?", Rose asked worriedly.  
"Yes. He brought some clothes earlier."  
"He brought clothes? What? Why? When?"  
"When you and the Doctor were shouting at each other. He knocked. Douglas told him we didn't have any clothes at all, so he told him to bring us some of the things people forgot around here.", Dotty explained matter of factly.  
Rose blushed in horror. They hadn't even heard someone knocking at the door. She really didn't want to imagine how many people had heard them fight.  
"That was really nice of both Douglas and Paul.", Rose told Dotty distractedly and walked towards the small stack of clothes on the table, "Did you already take a look?"  
"Yes, I did, but those things are boring.", Dotty pouted, "See? Black and brown. Boring."  
"Well, we don't really have another option right now. I am truly sorry about it, Dotty. Once we find a place to stay, we'll have to go shopping again. Although a lot less than yesterday. We'll have to be careful with our money now. So we best go out and try to find a flat, it's cheaper than a hotel."  
"Not now, we don't.", the Doctor chimed in, standing in the door, "I already paid for three nights in advance yesterday."  
"You what? Why?", Rose starred at him in shock.  
"Because this has all been very stressful and I need you to rest for a bit. Even if it's only a day."  
"I am pregnant. Not sick.", Rose ground out.  
"Yes. Pregnant. With a non-human baby. We can't simply treat this as a normal pregnancy, Even if we did, two months of working as a maid and time-travel without a capsule are not recommended."  
For a moment Rose wanted to protest. On principle. But the Doctor was looking so worried and she was indeed still incredibly exhausted... so instead she just nodded and said: "Fine."  
The Doctor almost looked surprised at her words and suddenly Rose felt terrible about herself. Had he really expected her to put up that much more of a fight? Had she been so aggressive before?Instead of answering she simply dropped down on the couch, pulling her feet up under her body. She was tired, so immensely tired and she didn't think sleep would be able to cure that any time soon.  
"Can I go down to reception? Paul said I could borrow more books.", Dotty interrupted the awkward silence, her eyes hopeful as she looked at Rose.  
"Yes, sure. Let me find something to dress first though, then we can go."  
"I can go on my own.", Dotty answered, obviously offended by Rose's suggestion.  
"I know that, but the people here don't. It might look odd if we led you walk around on your own like that without you knowing the place. We really don't need to draw more attention to our selves.   
"I'll take her then.", the Doctor interjected, "It'll give me a chance to take a look around. Ask at reception about flats and schools...."  
"Shouldn't you rather study Sally's notes?", Rose asked carefully, not wanting to sound nagging or disapproving again.  
"I already have. Right now there is nothing I can do. And since it is actually in the notes that we do get a flat... well, better get cracking."  
"What am I supposed to do then?", Rose asked, trying to hide the bitterness in her voice. Her anger was flaring up again, " I am not constricted to this room, am I?"  
"No, of course not. I just meant we don't HAVE to go out and do anything right now.", the Doctor hurried, "That does not mean you can't go out and look around if you really want to."  
Dotty started fidgeting again, either not caring about the tension in the room or really not noticing and the Doctor smiled down at her: "Okay then, let's find you some books."  
They stopped shortly at the door, the Doctor turning around, sighing deeply and saying: "Whatever you do, at least be careful, okay?"  
Rose's initial response was to snap back at him, before she caught herself, breathed in and out in a controlled matter and tried to smile at him: "Of course I will."  
After the Doctor and Dotty had left Rose set in silence for a couple of minutes, trying to reign in her tamper. What the hell was wrong with her?!  
Maybe the Doctor was right and she was really still angry at him. Maybe it was a weird hormonal thing with her carrying an alien baby. Or maybe, a nagging voice in the back of her head told her, maybe you have just realized that your life is never going to be the same again. Now he really means it when he tells you not to wander of. And you have to listen. Responsibility. That was it. And not just fun. There was a baby. An actual little being whose well-being was her responsibility. And for the moment hers alone.  
"Hey, little one,", Rose whispered, her hand protectively draped over the small bump that sheltered her daughter, "Might be stupid to talk to you right now. Maybe not though. I don't know. Maybe your Dad will tell me later that humans are so behind and of course you are like him and sentient from the start or something. Nothing surprises me anymore. Not really."  
She stopped, feeling tears well up in her eyes. It didn't really matter, she realized, that no one could hear her.  
"The thing is, little wolf, it was always just me and my Mum growing up and I loved her, really. Still do. But I missed having a Dad, I want the whole deal for you. But I lost my Dad and he was just an ordinary guy, your Dad has a habit of running into trouble head first... But I promise you, I'll do everything I can to always bring him back to you. I know how sad he is about being the only one. Of everyone around him dying, but if you have two hearts, you might live as long as him... And I would never want you to be alone like he is. So I'll protect him for you, yeah? No matter the cost."  
"Rose!", the door crashed open and Rose jumped up in shock, she hadn't even heard Dotty approaching, "There is a whole house full of books only two streets over. A whole house! Can you believe it?!"  
"A library?", Rose smiled fondly at the girl, "Did Paul tell you that?"  
"Yes! And I can go there and read or take some back with me!"  
"But only after we register you. And that might take a while, we need an address for that.", the Doctor tried to calm her enthusiasm down, as he entered after her. He immediately noticed the tear tracks on Rose's face and walked over, draping his arm around her shoulder, squeezing tightly and pressing a soft kiss on her forehead.  
"Then let's go! It's been HOURS!"  
Rose couldn't help it, she laughed. Dotty was almost as giddy as the Doctor sometimes could be and she felt it was epic justice that he now had to deal with that.  
"Give me a couple of minutes to get dressed, yeah? Then we can go.", Rose told the girl, before taking the pile of clothes and making her way into the bedroom, leaving the Doctor to handle Dotty's excited babbling all on his own. It was a good thing, she thought, that they had brought Dotty, that way they would at least have some experience with a child in their lives, although they weren't actually in the TARDIS.  
In the end Rose chose a dress from the pile, a huge, heavy brown thing that made her believe the original owner might have left it behind on purpose. At least it was warm and loose.  
When she made her way back into the sitting area the Doctor was sitting on Rose's old spot, his eyes slightly vacant as Dotty stood in front of him and told him everything about the book on the Hundred Year War she had read last night.  
"And it was actually longer but no one could count that far and..."  
"I'm ready, let's go and investigate the neighbourhood.", Rose interrupted and the Doctor's head shot up with the most hopeful look in his eyes she had ever seen.  
“Are you ready?”  
“Yes! Okay people, let's move out and investigate the neighbourhood!”  
“Yes!”, Dotty agreed happily and skidded out of the room, leaving Rose and the Doctor behind to lock up.  
“I think she might read the whole library.”, Rose joked when they reached the corridor and found that Dotty had already taken to the stairs.  
“She probably really will.”, the Doctor admitted, his tone less joyful than hers. He turned around to lock the door, his face hidden from her view and she knew why: He felt guilty again. For them being stranded. For Dotty having to read about history instead of experiencing it.  
“You know, I wonder would have happened to Dotty, if we had never met.”, she wondered quietly as they made their way down the stairs.  
“I assume she would have lived her life on her home-world.”, he answered, his tone clipped.  
“No, she was already born on that ship. Her parents would have succeeded in indoctrinating her and she would have spend her whole life looking for a way to prolong it, instead of living it.”  
He didn't respond to that but Rose was sure his step was lighter when they reached the ground floor and found Dotty chatting enthusiastically with an older, bold man at the reception. Paul, Rose assumed.  
Paul didn't seemed annoyed by Dotty at all, instead he had a soft, indulgent smile on his face and nodded attentively at whatever it was the girl was telling him.  
“Uh, there you are. You took ages.”, Dotty exclaimed when she spotted them.   
“Yes, we did. Old and slow. That's us.”, the Doctor agreed plainly and squeezed Rose's hand, “But now here we are. So let's go and find that library.”  
Dotty smiled happily and took Rose's other hand.  
“You know the way?”, Rose asked the Doctor, who nodded. And with a goodbye to Paul the trio found their way back to the street they had entered from the night before.  
It was, rather typically, cold. But not cold enough to turn the light drizzle into snow.  
“You know, I always used to believe it was a stupid prejudice that it rained so much here. And then I left and realized: No, it really does.”, Rose grumbled, pulling the worn, woollen cloak Douglas had send her, closer.  
The library was, much like Dotty had said, only a street away and came into view very quickly, but Rose wasn't that eager to actually go there. Instead her gaze turned to a small second hand store a couple of houses over.   
“How about you guys go ahead to the library and I take a look at the stuff over there?”, she asked. The Doctor followed her gaze and let go of her hand to hand her a roll of money.  
“Maybe I find something in your size with a lot of colour, yeah?”, Rose told Dotty, who seemed torn between wanting to go with Rose and really wanting to see the house full of books.  
“Are you sure we should split up?”, the Doctor's worried tone almost convinced Rose to stay together, but she really wanted to have a look around without the overprotective Doctor and chatty Dotty following her.   
“It's just down the road. If it doesn't take too long I'll come and follow you, if not I'll just go back to the hotel. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine.”  
“You got your phone? Just in case?”, the Doctor asked and Rose flinched. “No. I noticed it this morning. Must have left it on the bedside table on the TARDIS. Thought about phoning Martha for help, you know? And then realized it wasn't there.”  
“Martha. Right. She could have helped. Well, no matter now. Can't be helped.”  
“Can we sonic another phone for universal roaming?”, Rose asked and could have hit herself that they were talking about this now. On a street. In the rain.  
“No. Needs to be mobile.”, the Doctor admitted and Rose smiled sadly. Well, there situation was still the same as last night.  
“Okay guys, remember not to criticise facts in the history books too loudly!”, Rose admonished, pointing at the Doctor, before she turned towards Dotty and added: “Or about physics. No unnecessary attention. Low profile.”  
“Yes, mam.”, the Doctor and Dotty promised simultaneously and they grinned happily at each other. Rose just sighed, shook her head and crossed the street, turning around to give them a wave and watch them walk into the library hand in hand.  
Rose stood for a moment, still staring at the now empty doorway, before she turned her focus to the small, cozy-looking secondhand-shop in front of her. “Martha's” it stated quite simply, and although it really wasn't that extraordinary a name, Rose had felt like it was a sign right from the beginning.  
She pushed the door open and stepped into the narrow room, cramped full of rags and hangars. The shop was, Rose realized almost immediately, a lot bigger that it looked from the outside. It was long and narrow, full of little corners and parts she was sure she couldn't even see at this point.  
“How may I help you, Miss?”, a friendly looking woman in her early sixties asked to Rose's right and made her almost jump in surprise.   
“Oh, ahm... yes. I am just looking for something to wear for me and... my daughter.”, Rose hurried to explain.  
The expression on the woman's changed almost unnoticeable at the term “daughter”, her eyes not losing any of their friendliness but gaining some interest.   
“Of course, Mam, what age? Size? What exactly are you looking for?”  
It all became a bit of a blur after that. Rose and what turned out to be Martha, the owner, went looking through all the clothes that might fit Dotty first, finding some sensible ones and to Rose's immense delight, some very colourful ones that were sure to make the girl happy. Loaded with several dresses, skirts, blouses and pants the two made it back to the counter, were a young woman was just dealing with another costumer, stashing their haul there before turning their attention towards Rose's wardrobe, all the while chatting merrily. Well, Martha was doing most of the talking, glad to have found such an eager costumer and Rose was equally happy to listen, hoping to get as much information as possible about their surroundings, possible flats and working opportunities.  
“Oh, I need something, well... loose. I am pregnant, you see? And just starting to show.”  
“Oh, how wonderful!”, Martha exclaimed, “Another little one, you must be so excited!”  
“We are. The timing is a bit unfortunate though. We were travelling and got in an accident. Now we have to stay here for a bit. We are currently staying a hotel close by.”  
“Oh no, you poor dear! But you and your family weren't hurt, were you?”  
“No, we were very lucky. But now we are in a strange city, without home or work. We'll manage though. My... husband is quite resourceful.”  
“You want to work?”, Martha carefully eyed her up, “Have you ever worked in a shop before?”  
“I did, yes! Before I met my husband. A clothing store actually.”, Rose hurried to assure her, hoping she might get lucky here. The name had been a sign after all.  
“Top Shop. In Cardiff.”, Rose blurted out, hoping that the shop did in fact already exist. Or that Martha knew nothing about Cardiff.  
“I don't know that one. But no matter. If you want to work here, you can start tomorrow. If it works out, you can stay on for as long as you like. My morning girl quit last week. Ran away with a man, can you believe it? Now both poor June and I are working more to cover everything. ”  
Rose smiled happily at Martha, who's friendly demeanour had been replaced by a much more businesslike approach.  
“Now, pay won't be that much, I simply can't afford it, but it is work.”  
“It is. Thank you!”, Rose grinned and enthusiastically shook her new bosses hand, “When should I be here?”  
“We open at nine, so a little before that.”  
“I'll be here. I promise.”  
“Be were?”, the Doctor asked curiously behind them and Rose and Martha both turned around in surprise, they were standing in one of the back areas of the shop and Rose assumed that June had send the Doctor and Dotty after them.  
“Here. I got a job!”, Rose smiled happily at him.  
The Doctor looked warily at her for a moment, unsure if he was supposed to be happy or not, but her wide tongue in tooth grin seemed to win him over quite quickly.  
“That's brilliant!”  
“Oh, sorry. Martha, this is my husband and our Dotty.”  
“Very nice to meet you, Doctor Tyler.”, Martha smiled politely, her sale-persona back in place, as she shook the Doctor's hand before turning to Dotty and offering her the same.  
Dotty looked confused, obviously unsure of what to do, before she took the offered hand carefully just like she had seen the Doctor do before.  
“We were all successful then. You found a job and I think we might have found us a flat.”, the Doctor explained, “Which is very practical. That way we can register Dotty and she can take books back with her.”  
“They just went to the library.”, Rose explained for Martha's sake.  
“Oh, they sadly don't have that many children's books, do they? My grand-kids do constantly complain.”  
“They have a lot of books on earth history. And cosmology. Those I really like. And mathematics. But that gets old soon. Biology I don't like too much. Although it is very interesting how the human body works.”  
Martha blinked at Dotty in surprise, before giving Rose a questioning stare.  
“Why don't you guys go back to the counter and let me finish up here? I just need some more clothes, shouldn't take me too long. I sincerely doubt you'd want to watch.”, she added sourly, as she saw the Doctor's slightly panicked expression, “We can go for lunch and you can tell me about the flat.”  
“Deal!”, the Doctor hurried to agree, before he gave her a quick kiss to the temple, took Dotty's hand and hurried back up front.  
“Your little girl seems to be a smart one.”, Martha observed drily.  
“She is. We'll be sending her to school here of course, for social reasons, but most things she learns either from reading or the Doctor.”  
“The Doctor?”  
“Oh, that's what everyone calls John. Because he always boasts that he is an expert in everything.”, Rose grinned cheekily and turned her attention back to potential clothes, not wanting to let her two geniuses wait longer that necessary. Martha seemed to silently agree and 20 minutes later the Tylers were sitting in a restaurant next door, laden with clothes and talking about their potential new home.  
“It was at the noticeboard.”, the Doctor explained, “A furnished flat, not far from here. With two bedrooms and a home office. It really sounds perfect. I'd have a place to work and all that.”  
“All of it does in fact sound really perfect. How is that?”, Rose asked nervously, “I stopped believing in coincidences about a 100000 years in the future.”  
“Maybe it is just that. A coincided. Nothing more.”, the Doctor answered with the same highly uncomfortable expression he always got when talking about the game station. He originally hadn't really told her anything, but with both her Mum and Mickey telling her she had absorbed the Time Vortex successfully, he had told her they'd been able to defeat the Daleks and he had taken the power out of her. She knew there was much more to the story, but since it had ended with his regeneration, she had given up asking him about it and decided for now that maybe the subject was painful to him.  
“It said on the paper that we should just come by and ask to see the flat. Can we just do that? Now?”, Dotty asked excitedly and Rose noticed that although she was still eating her lasagna, the other two were finished. And both squirming in their seats.  
“I am not finished yet. So no.”, Rose reprimanded her in a stern voice, causing Dotty to put her head in her hand, “But maybe after. What do you say, Doctor?”  
“Maybe we should head back to the hotel. For a nap.”, the Doctor offered carefully, earning a horrified gasp from Dotty: “But it is not yet evening again?!”  
“Sometimes, if people are really tired or have been through a lot, they like to sleep a little after lunch. Or at least lay down and relax.”, the Doctor explained in the same voice usually reserved for scientific facts.  
Dotty nodded, clearly filing the information away like she did everything else.  
“Fine, let's go after I finish my frankly very delicious lasagna.”, Rose sighed, Dotty smiling happily and the Doctor giving her a searching look.  
“Are you sure?”  
“Yes, I am. But I want an early night today. Gotta get up for work in the morning.”  
In the end the flat really did end up being perfect. They'd be able to afford it on the money they had left even without Rose working. The furniture was a bit ugly. The neighbours mostly older couples. But the rooms were bright and suited them well, there was a school for Dotty nearby and Rose would have to walk about 5 minutes to work.   
So even though they had decided not to hurry and take their time, they did manage to find all they needed in one day. They still decided to stay in the hotel for their two remaining nights. Taking the time to enrol Dotty and get everything sorted with the flat, which was surprisingly easy with the help of the psychic paper.  
Dotty set in her room, reading the books she had gotten from Douglas earlier, who was back for the evening shift, when Rose decided to go to bed early and the Doctor joined her again, curling up beside her.  
“You'll stay again?”, Rose asked her voice already drifting off.  
“Of course.”, the Doctor answered shortly, his nose buried in her hair.  
“Doctor, I won't vanish, if you leave me out of your side for a bit.”, she sighed, barely able to keep her eyes open.  
“And I rather not risk it.”, he replied matter of factly.  
“I'm able to look after myself. And the little wolf.”  
Rose hardly noticed how the Doctor tensed up behind her at her words, she was already asleep when he propped himself up on his elbows, ready to ask what she was talking about.


	20. The domestic One

Chapter 20

The domestic One

 

When Rose woke up the next morning, the Doctor was again sitting on the bed next to her, Sally Sparrow's folder open on his knees, a pen in his hand, and his brown eyes trained on the pages in front of them, hidden behind his brainy specs.  
"Morning", she mumbled and perched up to give him a quick kiss, before quickly jumping out of bed.  
"Good morning", the Doctor answered, slightly puzzled by her quick exit.  
"I need to get ready for work", she explained, already almost out of the door and back into the living area, where she found Dotty sitting on the floor. Reading. Of course.  
"Come on, Dotty, let's get dressed and out for breakfast. One last time, before we get our own place and do the responsible thing: Making it ourselves."  
"Banana-waffles and hot chocolate?", Dotty's childishly hopeful eyes melting Rose's heart.  
"If you want to: Sure. I'll go get ready, you do the same."

Rose made her way back into the bedroom 20 minutes later, showered and feeling up for anything.   
She rummaged through one of her bags, trying to decide on something to wear.  
"Doctor, get dressed, will you? Dotty and I want to go for breakfast before I have to get to work."  
"Get ready? I am ready. Always."  
"Are you sure about not wanting any new clothes?"  
"I told you, I'll simply sonic them. I could have done the same for you. They'd be clean."  
"Maybe, but I just don't like the idea of wearing the same stuff every day."  
"Will you go back to the flat and make sure everything is ready for us to move in?", Rose added, her voice muffled by her attempts to pull a long sweater over her head.  
"Yes. Should not take too long. I'll take Dotty to the school afterwards and get her enrolled, if that's fine with you."  
"Sure. Will you take her shopping for uniforms then as well?"  
The Doctor made a non-verbal, displeased sound that made Rose grin with Schadenfreude.  
"Come on", she said, "Dotty will need a uniform and I'll be at work. I could go after work. Of course. But I might be too tired. Being pregnant and all that."  
"Okay, I'll do it.", the Doctor relented, his urge to protect her obviously bigger than his hate for shopping, "So flat. School. Library."  
"And maybe some groceries, while you are at it.", Rose teased, prompting him to groan again, "Now move. I do not want to be late on my very first day."  
They had a very nice breakfast down in the hotel lobby, but Rose felt a bit too nervous to really enjoy it. Yes, she had worked in a shop before, but it had been a while back and... well, she hadn't really liked it that much. The Doctor and Dotty did do their best to distract her though, intentional or not, and they made their way to Rose's first day at work together.   
"We'll come and get you tonight after work.", the Doctor promised, giving her a searching look, as if he wasn't sure if he really wanted to let her go.   
"That sounds like a good plan. I'll be wanting to hear all about your adventures of the day. And please remember to buy some groceries. I am feeling like eating a home-made Shepherd's Pie."  
"You want me to make one?", the Doctor asked carefully, trying very hard not to look alarmed.   
"No.", Rose let him of the hook, "It's not that hard. I can just do it after work. Tomorrow. Let's eat it tomorrow."  
"What's Shepherd's Pie?", Dotty asked, fidgeting beside them. Standing still was obviously not her thing, but as soon as she could learn something new, she suddenly seemed all there.  
"It's a meal my Mum always used to make. It feels like home and I think we should eat it tomorrow for our first dinner in our new home, right?"  
"Right.", they both agreed, before the Doctor gave Rose a quick kiss and Dotty leaned in for a quick hug, finally leaving Rose for her first day at 'Martha's'.  
"Morning!", she chirped, when she entered the shop a quarter to nine.  
“Good morning, Rose!”, both Martha and June answered in unison from behind the counter.  
“We will all work this morning so I'll have some time to show you around and explain everything. Then June will work long enough for you to take a lunch-hour and leave us on our own after that. Do you think that'll work?”, Martha asked her.  
“Yes! Of course. Lunch. I hadn't even thought about that.”  
“You should. It's important. Especially right now.”, Martha gave her a disapproving, but friendly look.   
“Yeah, I know.”, Rose answered, blushing deeply, “I keep forgetting.”  
“Then that's what I am here for.”, Martha smiled.   
In the end Rose ended up having a salad and two sandwiches for lunch, happily eating in in the shop's back-room, while reading a newspaper and thumping through magazines, trying to familiarize herself with this time. Her father was a teenager right now, 15 years old. Her mum had just turned two. They were out here, even in London, at the same time as she was, but still so far away.   
“Hey”, June disrupted her thoughts, “Not much going on right now, are you in the mood for some talking?”  
“Sure!”, Rose hurried, giving her new colleague a wide smile. She wasn't really sure what to think of the girl, who was probably the same age as herself but seemed so much.... younger, Rose thought. Or had she just grown up so fast, since she met the Doctor? Probably.   
June opened her mouth, as if to say something, but closed it again, not sure what to say. Rose gave her a weary look. Normally she was really good at starting conversations with strangers, but this time it felt different. She had too much to lose. They'd be staying for a while... they had too much to hide. She simply had to be more guarded about what she told people.   
“Sooooo, Martha told me your daughter is really, very smart.”, June started awkwardly.   
“Yeah, I mean: Yes, she is. But my husband is, too. It's a bit humbling in the beginning, but one gets used to it.”  
Silence.  
“Have you found a flat yet?”  
“Yes, my family wanted to get over there this morning and sign the papers. I hope they did, it'll mean we can move in tomorrow.”  
“And is it far from here?”  
“No, just about five minutes by foot. Good for this job and Dotty can go to the nearby school.”  
“And your husband?”  
“Oh, the flat has a home-office. He'll be able to work from home.”  
It was clear, that June really wanted to ask what exactly it was, that the Doctor did, but didn't want to pry, since Rose obviously wasn't offering up any information. She wasn't sure, if June really wanted to know because she was interested in her new colleague or if she was nosy and just wanted to be able to gossip.   
It doesn't really matter, Rose thought and took a deep breath. They were stuck her for the foreseeable future, so she better man up and make some friends.   
“Once we are settled in, we'd be really happy to have you and Martha over, if you like. Plus partners of course, if that's okay.”  
June's eyes lit up with excitement. “Yes! That'd be great. Jamie and I would sure love to come! And I am sure Martha and her husband as well, he's retired now and Martha is always complaining that he should get out of the house more.”, June grinned, giving Rose a conspiratory wink.  
Rose smiled back. Maybe June was going to be a friend. Maybe not. But she should at least try to be nice to her colleagues. “I can't even imagine that. At least I am at work now. What exactly would it be like if both the Doctor and I were to be home all the time? I think I'd strangle him.”  
“Why do you think Martha works so much?”, June laughed and Rose joined in.   
Maybe, she dared to think, maybe being stranded here wasn't that bad and would give them some time to figure things out. 

 

The Doctor and Dotty entered the shop at five o'clock. On the dot. Both wearing an insufferably smug expression, that, Rose assumed, stemmed from the fact that Dotty was wearing a brand new school-uniform. So they HAD been shopping.  
“Wow, Dotty! That looks really very good on you!”, Rose praised their efforts, causing some of the costumers that had flooded in after lunch to look over and smile and the happy young girl, that swirled around to show of her dress.   
“The colours are not as bright, as I would have liked, but I still think it's pretty.”, Dotty explained and Rose laughed. The uniform was a nice, dark red. Something she would very much have liked to wear for school, but it was obviously way to subdued for Dotty.  
“Are you ready to leave, Mum?”  
Rose froze, while Dotty looked up at her with bright eyes and the Doctor walked over to give her a reassuring squeeze.  
“Your Mum is almost done, love.”, Martha answered, while Rose still tried to process what had just happened.  
“What? Oh yes, right, I just need to get my coat from the back!”, Rose mumbled, practically running into the back-room, where she took a moment to breathe. Just breathe, she told herself.   
Mum. Of course. The Doctor probably told Dotty to call her that, so no-one would notice. Or she read it somewhere. Or she noticed other kids doing it. It was a cover. It made sense. But still... Someone had just called her Mum. Mum. The same word she always used for her own mother. Mum. She wasn't a mum. Not really.   
But you will be. Soon. The nagging voice in her mind told her calmly. Very soon.   
And for those people outside, she already was. Dotty's mum. Even though the girl wouldn't really stay young for that long. Soon she would be at the same level as Rose.... then she would surpass her. Hell, intellectually she already had.   
Resolutely she picked up her cloak and went back up front, where the Doctor was giving her a worried glance. She just gave him a bright smile.  
“So, you and Dad had a successful day then?”, Rose grinned cheerfully, causing the Doctor to flinch slightly.   
Aha, she thought, now you know what that's like.  
“Yes, very.”, Dotty grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door, all of them giving friendly waves towards Martha, as they left the shop, “I am a student now. With an ID and all. And I have a library-card. And books. Lots of books.”  
“And groceries?”, Rose asked, giving the Doctor a teasing smile.   
“Not yet, no.”, he answered, “We'll do that tomorrow, once we have an actual place to store them.”  
“Good excuse.”, Rose laughed, swinging hers and Dotty's hands widely as they walked. It had been a good day, she decided. She liked her colleague. She liked her boss. She liked her job. And right now, she was walking down the street with the two people she liked most.  
“That's because it's the truth.”, the Doctor answered stubbornly, but he had to smile as well.   
“So tomorrow? What's the plan?”, Rose asked, as they entered the Hotel, greeting Douglas, who was back at his usual spot.  
“You go to work. Dotty goes to school and I move aaaaaall of our stuff. Then I'll go.... grocerie-shopping.”, he admitted quietly.  
“All of our three bags of clothes?”  
“And my four bags of books.”, Dotty reminded Rose seriously.   
“Of course. How could I forget about those?”

They did have dinner together at the hotel for the last time, before they decided to settle down into the small living-area together.   
“Did it bother you? That I called you Mum?”, Dotty asked suddenly, cutting through the comfortable silence that had fallen over them, with the Doctor tinkering with some appliances Rose had never seen before and Rose and Dotty playing a board-game Douglas had let them borrow from the hotel. Rose thought about the girl's honest question for a moment. She knew Dotty wanted a real answer, not just something to reassure her.  
“I was a bit shocked.”, she finally admitted, “And then I got a bit scared because I'll soon be a Mum. But it didn't really bother me. It just made it more real. Do you get what I mean?”  
Dotty's forehead was furrowed in concentration. She was giving her answer just as much thought as Rose had. “Yes.”, she finally admitted, “I think I do. We were at the school to register me and the principal asked me what my Mum was doing and I realized he meant you. It was strange. It seems to be such an intimate term. I would never have called Mother-of-mine that.”  
Rose froze and saw the Doctor do the same, his head snapping towards them and a trace of guilt on his face.  
“You know... you don't have to call me that? I am sure there are kids out there that call their parents by their first names. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable.”, Rose offered. She really didn't know what to do here. She still felt it was a small miracle that Dotty didn't resent them, didn't hate them for what had happened to her family. And Rose didn't even know what exactly had happened to them. She hadn't had the nerve to ask.  
“No. I am fine with it. I read a lot of books. Having a Mum and Dad is a good thing. All the orphans in the books want a Mum and Dad. They protect you. They take care of you. I want that.”  
“Than you will always have that with us.”, came the Doctor's firm reply from the couch, catching Rose off-guard. She had almost forgotten that he was there, “For as long as you want us.”  
“Okay.”, Dotty replied matter-of-factly and returned her attention to the game, while Rose and the Doctor were staring at each other above her head. This was it then. They had made this decision. This commitment.   
“We are not registered as John and Rose Tyler at Dotty's school.”, the Doctor informed Rose after their moment of silence.  
“My name is Dorothee now. Dorothee Rose.”, Dotty informed her newly appointed Mum, “I read a lot of kids have a middle-name after a family member. It's just as. And Dorothee Doctor sounds strange. Is my name okay?”  
“It's more than okay.”, Rose assured her, feeling tears will up in her eyes, “It's very beautiful. Is it okay, if we continue this another time? I think I need a early night.”  
“Sure.”, Dotty answered, as calmly as always and started to put the game away, while Rose got up and almost fled to their bedroom, the Doctor following her slowly.   
“You okay?”, he asked quietly, as he wrapped his arms around her middle.  
“Yeah.”, tears were freely running down her face now, as she laid her head back and rested it against his chest, “Just a very, very long day.”  
“Are you really okay with all of this? I know it makes sense from a logical standpoint, but logic isn't everything.”  
“Yes, I am okay with it. If not, I would have told you guys outside. I get the feeling that Dotty would handle honesty much better than lies told to protect her.”  
“Probably, yes. She is practical that way.”, the Doctor admitted, a low chuckle rumbling through his chest, “I am glad she came with us. I greatly enjoy having her around. She is quick. And smart. And kind. And most of all: She's curious.”  
“Yeah. But sometimes I feel like I am talking to a child.... and the next she seems so much older. I find it a bit hard sometimes to find the right words.”, Rose admitted.  
“Mh, appearances never really were that important to me. So I just try to see her as Dotty and nothing else.”  
“That's probably for the best anyway.”  
They got changed and settled in bed for the night, the Doctor again joining Rose, still not ready to let her go. That whole day at work had scared him a bit, Rose realized. He couldn't protect her, if he wasn't with her.  
“Is this what it's like for you?”, Rose returned to their earlier conversation. She understood now why the Doctor only had conversations like this in the dark. It felt safer that way somehow.  
“What what's like?”, he asked.  
“I am scared of Dotty dying. Not from danger, but because it's simply the natural cause. Is that what it's like for you with me?”  
The Doctor's whole body went stiff beneath her.  
“I prefer not to think about that.”, his voice was sharp and clipped.  
“I know. I just want you to know though that the same applies: We are giving Dotty the best life possible and it will be okay, because that's just what life is supposed to be like. And it will be okay when she or I are gone as well, because our lives will have been great.”  
“I really don't want to talk about this, Rose.”  
She thought about pressing on, but then decided against it. She had said what was really important here and she did not want to cause him any more pain.   
“Dorothee Rose Tyler.”, she laughed lightly, “Strange, isn't it? I just talked to her. Because I was bored. And now here we are.”  
“I thought we had realized a long time ago that the smallest act can have the biggest impact on someone.”, came the low reply.  
“Tomorrow we'll be sleeping in our own flat. With carpets.”  
“That's temporary. We'll get back home.”, the clear note of defiance in the Doctor's voice at the notion of carpets made Rose smile again. 

 

The next morning Rose got up a bit earlier to find the time and say goodbye to the hotel's stuff, that had been so friendly and helpful to them. The Doctor and Dotty had of course been up anyway, both doing what they did most to stay quite while she slept: read.   
Dotty, who was obviously trying hard to learn human costumes, even hugged Paul goodbye and promised to come visit him soon. They made their way outside together, Rose carrying a lunch-bag, Dotty her school-things and the Doctor the first two bags of books, promising Rose repeatedly that yes, he would go and buy groceries later, all while mumbling about a timey-wimey-detector and eastereggs. Rose chose not to ask.   
Since everything had gone so well the day before, Martha had decided to just come in for an hour in the morning to help Rose open up the shop so she'd know what to do. In the future it would be Rose's job to open up all together, with Martha coming in for the busier times during the day and June locking up at night. “Of course that's how we do it.”, Martha had huffed, “You have a daughter that is home in the evenings. June had a husband that works long anyway.”   
Trying to sleep the night before, Rose had honestly thought that maybe the whole arrangement was too perfect. Then again, even they had to be lucky sometimes.   
The Doctor took a turn right shortly before they reached the shop to get to the flat, promising one last time that everything would be done by the time she got home from work. Rose and Dotty left him with similarly sceptic looks and reached the shop shortly after, giving a friendly wave before Rose turned around to look at Dotty, letting her new boss wait for a minute.  
“You'll be okay?”, Rose asked, unsure if she was really asking about Dotty being okay or her doing something to someone else. They hadn't really left her alone like that.  
“Yes. I will be fine.”, Dotty promised, “I will try to behave like a human child. I have studied them. Read about their stages of development. I will adapt.”  
“How about you try and have some fun? Find some friends?”  
Dotty tilted her head to the left, giving Rose a sceptical look.   
“Maybe. Yes. But the human level of intelligence is very different from mine.”  
“Like me. But we get on.”, Rose tried to encourage her charge.  
“You are different.”, Dotty stated simply and decided the whole discussion was done, by simply hugging Rose and running off towards the school, skipping a few steps happily.   
Rose stared after her for a bit, before she joined Martha, who gave her an understanding look, but chose not to comment on what she thought was a young mother letting her child run off in a new and big city. Instead she gave her a set of keys and showed her how to open up the shop and Rose had to admit later that she managed to push all the thoughts and worries about Dotty away for a while.   
Both the Doctor and Dotty came to get her again in the evening. The Doctor's hair was wild and all over the place, earning him a few strange looks from the costumers inside and coxing a loving smile from Rose.   
“How did your day go?”, she asked him carefully, not wanting to sound nagging about all the chores.   
“We have officially moved in.”, he declared proudly, “And we have food in the kitchen. I got some other supplies as well, for my project.”  
“That's good!”, Rose tried to hide her relief. Don't look too surprised, she told herself.   
“Oh. And some of the neighbours came by.”, the Doctor's tone turned a lot less pleased then. Dotty sniggered in glee and tried to hide it by coughing, when she saw the Doctor looking at her with his furrowed brow.  
Hm, Rose thought with a wide grin, Dotty is right: She learns quickly.   
“What did they want?”, Rose asked carefully, while waving to Martha and the newly arrived June and leading her little family outside. Better to take this discussion elsewhere. Before the Doctor started a rant about carpets.   
“Be nosy.”, he declared.  
“They were.”, Dotty agreed, “But nice. Two ladies brought me sweets as a welcome-gift. That's nice. One of the girls in school gave me an apple.”  
“Right!”, Rose hurried. She had almost forgotten about Dotty's first day. Already a terrible Mum, she thought.  
“How was school then?”  
“It was both fun and boring.”, Dotty informed her gravely, “They are slow. But playing outside was fun. And the headmaster wants to see you.”  
“What?”, Rose and the Doctor both said at the same time.  
“What did you do?”, Rose asked, worry back in full force.  
“I didn't hurt anyone.”, Dotty stated simply, “Although one of the boys pulled my hair and I was thinking about breaking his arm.”  
“Only thinking about it though.”, the Doctor repeated, his voice torn between hope and dread.   
“Yes. You said I shouldn't hurt anyone. So I didn't.”  
Admittedly Rose was a bit worried about the fact that Dotty had decided not to hurt a child because they had told her not to, and not because she new it was wrong, but at least it was something.   
“Then why does the headmaster want to see us after only one day of school?”, the Doctor asked, while starting to look for the keys in his pockets. Good idea to start early, it might take a while. “I was there with you yesterday.”  
“My English teacher told us to read something. So I did. Apparently we were supposed to read the paragraph and be able to tell her what happens in it.”  
“What did you do?”, Rose asked, suddenly smiling. She had an idea where this was going.  
“In read the book.”, Dotty told her as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Which it was. For her.   
“Then why does the headmaster want to see us?”, the Doctor asked, still confused.  
“Because Dotty is too smart.”, Rose explained, “He'll probably want to bump her up a couple of classes or something. We'll just tell him that we want her to go for social reasons and that you keep teaching her at home.”  
“I need some history books.”, Dotty interjected. Apparently she had again decided that everything important had been said, “I didn't know something in class today.”  
“It's kind of the point that you learn new things.”, Rose tried to explain when they reached their new building.  
“I don't like to not know thing.”, was the only reply she got, when the Doctor opened the door and ushered them inside.   
“Finally.”, Rose grinned, kicked off her shoes and sank into the couch, put her feet up on the table and closed her eyes in bliss, “Give me a sec and I'll get up and make dinner.”  
“No need.”, the Doctor proclaimed proudly. “I made shepherd's pie. It just needs to go into the oven.”  
Rose's eyes opened in shock. “What?”  
“I made dinner.”, the Doctor repeated.  
Rose just stared at him.  
“I asked Mrs Hurt from next door for her recipe. Might not taste like your mother's, but shepherd's pie it is.”  
The Doctor started to fitch nervously, when Rose was still looking at him in wonder.   
“I can be a responsible adult.”, he almost huffed and set down on the table next to her feet, “And you were up all day.”  
“That's fine, actually. A lot less stressful that working as a maid. I was a bit scared at first, but working there is much nicer than Henrik's. Smaller. The people actually talk to you. I like it. Mostly people that have done their shopping there for years and all very interested about the new girl. And very shocked that the last one just up and left. I had forgotten what that's like, you know? Having people around you all the time. But with the school and now the shop... it's strange to suddenly be part of a world again.”  
The Doctor's expression was hard to read, it took him a moment before he opened his mouth to answer. And then Dotty stormed back into the room, out of her school-uniform and wearing one of her new, orange dresses.  
“I am hungry. How long will dinner be? I did all my homework already. And Edith invited me to a party on Saturday. It's her birthday. She sits next to me. And gave me an apple. She's nice. But stupid. May I go? She says you can come as well. Meet the other parents. Make friends. Then you can leave. Because it's a party for kids and no-one wants grown-ups there. Some of the mums will be there though. To make sure we behave. Stupid really. It's a sleepover. I don't know about that. I don't sleep. How do I go to a sleepover? It sounds interesting though. Like I should try and experience it. But I can't sleep and I don't want to just lay there in the dark. And I can't read in the dark. So what do I do? Maybe you could say you are okay with the party, but not the sleepover, since we are new here? But I also don't want to be the only girl who can't go. I read in a book that human children that age can be cruel and make an opinion about someone really quickly and then just ignore or bully them. So maybe I can lay around in the dark for a couple of hours and pretend to sleep just for that. What would you do? ”  
It took Rose more than 30 seconds to process what Dotty had just thrown at her.   
“30 minutes. I just put it in the oven. There are some algorithms that need to be checked. And data about the temporal flux someone needs to have a look at. I could give you my sonic screwdriver for the night. It would give you something to do. No one would notice.”, the Doctor answered without missing a beat. Rose was still not sure she got everything.  
“So I can go.”, Dotty stated with a huge smile on her face.   
“I don't see why not.”, Rose agreed, “I will take you, so I can get to meet some new people. And then I promise I'll leave to not disturb all your amazing fun. When does it start?”  
“At 6 pm. PM. That is so stupid and inefficient. Why do humans still use such an old system?”  
“Not all of them do.”, the Doctor informed her calmly and got up. To check on their food, Rose disbelievingly assumed. She chose to ignore the last remark and get back on topic: “We can go shopping for a present earlier that day then. I won't have to work and somehow I don't trust you and the Doctor to come up with a good idea for a young, human girl.”  
“Okay.”, Dotty agreed and skipped off into the kitchen, leaving Rose to close her eyes again and try and relax for a moment. She could hear the soft mumbling of the Doctor and Dotty in the kitchen, the rustling of plates being put on the table. Carefully she rolled on her side, now completely stretched out on the couch, her hand carefully resting on her belly, the soft, domestic noises lulling her into sleep. Is this it?, she thought. Is this what a home feels like? Yes it is.   
She could remember her Mum setting the plates like that, the warm, homely smell of shepherd's pie promising comfort. It was almost like when she was a child. Only better, Rose realized. Because this was hers now. Home.

“Mum?”, Dotty asked, her hand carefully resting on Rose's shoulder.  
Slowly Rose opened her eyes and looked at Dotty in confusion. “What?”  
“Dinner is ready.”  
“Oh! I fell asleep. Sorry, dear. I'll be there in a bit.”, Rose promised and set up carefully, before making her way to the bathroom. She grinned, when she saw that the Doctor had even arranged her things the same way she had inside the TARDIS.  
When she made her way to the kitchen, the Doctor and Dotty were both sitting at the table, both there hands folded in front of them and looking at her expectingly. The shepherd's pie between the both of them looked, Rose had to admit, really good. Steaming hot and much greasier than was healthy, but in a tasty way.  
The Doctor waited until Rose had set down, before taking her plate and handing her a huge portion of shepherd's pie and then doing the same for Dotty and himself. Then they both just set there, watching her with curiosity.  
“What? Are you really turning the pregnant woman into your food-tester?”, Rose asked drily, startling the other two.  
“We are three different species. We can't really use a tester.”, Dotty explained patiently, “Me dying would not mean you dying or wise versa.”  
“And why do the two of you immediately assume that I'm poisoning you with food?”, the Doctor's miffed voice cut of Rose's possible answer.   
The two girls just looked at him.  
The Doctor glared at them, finally picked up his fork and took a huge bite of food. And then another. Rose grinned and took a bite as well.  
“Ohhhhhhhhhhh”, she breathed happily, “This is REALLY good, Doctor!”  
“Thank you. I agree.”, the man declared proudly, a huge smile on his face, when Dotty started to shovel the hot food into her mouth.  
“You did this, Doctor? All by yourself?”  
“Yes. Welllllllll. No. Not really. I asked Mrs Flint from next door for her recipe. I told her it was your Mum's favourite meal and we wanted to eat it for our first evening in our new flat. She took that as an invitation.”  
“Ah.”, Rose grinned, this was starting to make more sense now.  
“But she only told me what to do. And apparently I peel potatoes annoyingly slowly. So she did that.”  
“Was she really bored?”, Dotty asked, full of innocent curiosity.  
“No. Maybe. But I did tell her I was building something and some of her appliances need fixing. Tomorrow I will take a look, fix what needs to be fixed and she'll make me lunch for it. Apparently that's what neighbours do.”  
“I am guessing she decided that and simply informed you of that decision?”  
“Yes. She's a bit... pushy.”, the Doctor admitted.  
“Is she the woman with the grey bun?”, Dotty asked.  
“Aren't they all?”, Rose shot back, remembering the neighbours that had peered out through the curtains, when they had looked at the apartment.  
“Mrs Flint is taller than the others.”, the Doctor explained, “She's the one directly to our right. A widow. Husband died during World War 2.”  
“I will go and introduce myself soon.”, Rose promised, “And thank her for her help.”  
The Doctor shot her an annoyed look.  
“Because she gave you such a great recipe. Your shepherd's pie is amazing, I love it. Thank you so much, Doctor. It's exactly what I needed today!”, Rose continued, Dotty nodded enthusiastically and the Doctor smiled proudly.

During the rest of the week the Tylers settled into some kind of routine of work, school and trying to find a way home. The Doctor even stopped simply sitting next to Rose while she slept, instead spending most of his nights in his workspace with Dotty, who was such a quick study that she even managed to genuinely offer some insight. And although the Doctor never mentioned it again, Rose knew he spend at least part of his day fixing things for the neighbours in exchange for lunch. She wasn't sure yet, if she thought it was funny or not. But he was definitely trying to lighten her workload without even letting her know it. He talked to Dotty's headmaster again and did the shopping. Cooking and cleaning weren't really his thing, but Rose would have thought him possessed had he tried to constantly do that as well and if she was honest with herself, she had gotten quite used to these things during their stay in 1913. Although she was looking forward to returning to the TARDIS more than ever.   
On Saturday morning Rose decided to sleep in for a bit. She was still constantly tired, but Martha had warned her about that and Rose hoped it would get better soon. When she was still in bed at half past nine, a romance novel Dotty had brought from the library in her hands, the Doctor opened the bedroom door and carefully peered in.  
“Oh! You're up!”  
“No. I am awake, there is definitely a difference.”, Rose grinned cheekily at him and closed her book.  
“You didn't want to get up for breakfast?”  
“I don't wanna get up for anything to be honest.”, Rose admitted, “But I will soon, Dotty and I need to go out to by a birthday present.”  
“If you really don't feel like it, I can...”, the Doctor began, worry in his eyes.  
“Oh no, I will be fine. Just give me a moment to enjoy the feeling of not having to get up.”  
The Doctor still didn't really look convinced. Instead he came over to the bed and lay down, Rose automatically turning into him and resting her head on his chest, when he put his arms around her.  
“Maybe you going to work was a bad idea.”  
“No. It wasn't. I am just a bit tired, that's normal in the beginning of a pregnancy. I asked Martha and she said it was nothing to worry about.”  
“I am worried though. Mh. You know.... there was a human/time lord baby before, but he was completely human in the end and I thought this might just be normal, but the scans of our daughter show her to be time lord instead.”  
“Not half? Just time lord?”, Rose asked in confusion.  
“Yes. I don't understand it. And I understand everything.”  
“Maybe you should ask Dotty. She's good with biology.”, Rose teased, only half joking.   
The Doctor didn't seem to think it was much of a joke either, but looked thoughtful instead.  
“If the baby is fully time lord, what exactly do I have to expect then?”  
“Well, the pregnancy should be fairly normal, I hope, the mother's species is what determines length and such, not the baby's. But once she's born, things might be a bit different.”  
“Like what?”, Rose asked curiously. The Doctor could be human enough and then strangely alien the next. What exactly did she have to expect from her daughter?  
“She will probably sleep a lot. I know human babies do, too, but for the first year a time lord sleeps even more than that. Our brains function differently, are much more complex and need more time to develop. Then that will radically become less and less from when she's around 12 months old. By the time she's two, she will sleep as much as I do.”  
“What? We will have a toddler running around, that sleeps around 4 hours a week?!”, this time Rose couldn't really hide the horror in her voice.   
“Pretty much, yes. Easy. It will give me something to do in all those pesky hours of sleep you need.”, the Doctor sounded genuinely excited about the prospect of having company.  
The baby is time lord, Rose smiled, like him. He might be the last, but he won't be the only one.  
Dotty banged at their door, shouting in a rather impatient tone: “Mum is already pregnant. There is no need for further sexual intercourse!”  
Rose involuntarily started to laugh loudly at the Doctor's gob-smacked expression.   
“We are up, Dotty! Set the table, we'll have breakfast in a bit!”, Rose shouted back and finally got up.  
“What?”, she asked the Doctor, who was looking at her with a bright grin.  
“What?”, she repeated.  
“Dotty is at a sleepover tonight.”  
Rose started to grin as well.

Equipped with a brand-new sleeping-bag, clothes, a gift-wrapped, pretty edition of 'The Hobbit', and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, Rose and Dotty made their way over to the Saunder's house for Dotty's very first sleepover. Rose wasn't sure who was more nervous: Dotty about fitting in with the other girls or herself about fitting in with the mothers.   
She had told one of their neighbours, Mrs Lester, about the sleepover and she had given her a sour look and asked: “You have never met the girl or her parents and you allow your little girl to spend the night?”  
Was that wrong? She really didn't know how these things worked. She had been allowed at sleepovers, but her Mum had known all the others. Then again, Dotty wasn't a normal girl (also she looked giddy like one right then), but the others didn't know that. Would they think of her as a bad mother? They would probably already gossip about the fact that she must have been a very young one...  
“Are you ready?”, she asked Dotty, standing in front of the door and mustering up the courage to knock.  
Dotty gave a non-coherent answer that could have been anything. Maybe they should wait a moment longer.  
“Dotty? Hello!”, a happy voice exclaimed behind them and a plump little girl with black ponytails ran up to them, followed by a middle-aged woman that looked so similar, she had to be the girl's mother.  
“Hi Ellie!”, Dotty smiled, her nervousness seemingly evaporated, “Ellie, this is my Mum. Mum, this is Eleonore, my friend.” She smiled proudly up at Rose.  
“Very nice to meet you.”, Rose shook the young girls hand.  
“Very nice to meet you, too, Mrs Tyler. This is my Mum!”  
Ellie's mother stepped forward and took Rose's offered hand, “Iseabail Hilton.”  
Rose smiled at the light Scottish note in her voice, “Rose Tyler.”  
“We are all looking forward to meeting you so much!”, Mrs Hilton smiled, “Your Dotty is such a delightful child.”  
“Thank you!”, Rose was honestly happy, she had been so worried about Dotty fitting in. Maybe, she thought, I should have trusted her more.   
Ellie bounced forward knocked at the door with all the enthusiasm of a little girl excited at the prospect of spending a night with her friends. The door was opened almost immediately, by a tall, freckled girls that had to be Edith, the birthday girl, who was so excited that she hugged both her friends and pulled them along behind her and forgot to even their mothers, to the utmost horror of her own.   
Half an hour later Rose found herself sitting on a bench in the kitchen, surrounded by five other, chatting women and with a hot cup of tea in her hands, while the eight girls could be heard having fun in the living-room.  
Edith's mother made her way back through the door and smiled at the other mums. “Everything is still standing in there!”, she declared and everyone smiled at her thankfully.  
“It is rather brave of you to let them all stay here.”, Mrs Hilton looked up at Mrs Saunders in something close to awe.  
“Edith has nagged about this for her past two birthdays and this year we thought: Why not? And I would like to thank all of you, for allowing your girls to come.”  
The women all nodded and smiled, only Rose was confused. “Were there some that said no?”  
“Oh yes! They said girls so young shouldn't be away from home like that! And we have only lived here for a year, some just didn't trust us with their kids yet.”, Mrs Saunders explained.  
“Oh. No I feel bad for allowing it without actually knowing you.”, Rose admitted and turned red.  
“Oh no, dear!”, Mrs Hilton exclaimed, who as the first woman to meet her, had now apparently decided it was her job to look after Rose, “It is very nice of you! The girls were all so excited that Dotty would be here. And she is such a bright girl. I am sure that is due to your a bit more progressive way of raising her.”  
Rose was still not sure, if that was a good thing.  
“Yes!”, Mrs Bearn chipped in, “I heard the teachers actually thought Dotty is too smart for school.” She looked at Rose with admiration in her eyes, “When I came to get my Vanessa on Thursday, I was was talking to little James' mother about the space program and your Dotty actually corrected us and then explained it all!”  
“Oh.”, Rose smartly replied, unsure if she should now be the proud mum or worried about Dotty knowing too much.  
“Is it humbling to have such a smart girl at home?”, Mrs Oscar asked with obvious interest. Rose was the centre of attention now, everything extra curious about the new members of their community.   
“Well, yes and no. I am used to it. My husband is the same.”  
“Is that why you took the poor girl in?”, Mrs Jules chimed in, drawing every set of eyes towards her and an affronted look from Mrs Hilton.  
“What?”, Rose asked in shock.  
Mrs Jules turned red in embarrassment and refused to respond.   
“Don't worry about it, dear. Apparently Mrs Morrison, Samuel's mother, was at your shop the other day and thought you looked terribly young. Her son heard her talking about it at home. And well, she must have used some unkind words to describe you.”, Mrs Bearn explained.  
“Terrible gossip that woman.”, Mrs Hilton huffed and patted Rose's hand.  
Mrs Bearn nodded before continuing: “So of course the little bully used that to rile up your Dotty.”  
“Someone is bullying Dotty?!”, Rose asked in alarm. Let the kids or the mothers think about her whatever they wanted, she suddenly realized, but they better stay away from her girl,  
“No, Dotty is a feisty one, isn't she? But she did tell the whole playground that her biological parents didn't want what was best for her and that the two of you took her into your family. She said that she had parents before, but now she has a Mum and Dad.”, Mrs Oscar continued, “All the children came home with that story.”  
“What was best for her.”, Rose repeated, thinking about the way Dotty had phrased that, without really letting anyone know what had happened. Did she even know? Had the Doctor told her what he had done to them?  
“That was very kind of you.”, Mrs Hilton smiled at her, still patting her hand, “The poor girl. I know what it means to be on your own and taken in by loving strangers. That was very good of you.”  
“She is a great girl and deserves a good chance.”, Rose simply replied, tears welling up in her eyes, “Sorry, I am a bit of a mess.”  
“Oh no, dear! Do not worry about that. Don't worry about anything!”, Mrs Hilton continued and handed er a handkerchief, “We look after each other in this neighbourhood.” The other Mums nodded enthusiastically.   
An hour later Rose gave a last hug to Dotty and left the Saunders' house with a new spring in her step, feeling confident that she made a couple of friends and that they would except her, Dotty and the Doctor even if they were a bit different. Different wasn't that unusual in a generation that had lived through a world war.


	21. Home is...

Chapter 21

Home is...

 

Mrs Jules, or Amanda, as Rose was now allowed to call her, lived only two streets away and brought Dotty back home the next morning, with her own daughter, Claire, and Dotty chatting the whole time, about all the fun things they had done the night before. Rose and the Doctor could hear them even before they reached the door.  
“You'd think after a night together, they would run out of things to talk about.”, the Doctor grumbled, as he made his way to the door, to let the girl in, while Rose tried to hide in the kitchen, still in her nightgown. He opened the door, right when Amanda raised her hand to knock. She looked somewhat flabbergast to find him home in a suit and with totally wild hair, that might just have had Rose's hands go through them.  
“Morning, Dad.”; Dotty chirped and ducked beneath his arm to run inside.  
“Morning, Dr Tyler.”, Claire echoed and did the same. The Doctor had met some of the children and their parents during his trips to Dotty's school, Rose remembered and thought how to best make a run for the bedroom, since it now seemed like they were actually coming in and not just dropping Dotty off.  
“Good morning.”, the Doctor answered mechanically.  
“Claire!”, Amanda shouted, mortified, “We are NOT just running into other peoples' homes! And we are not staying. I am so sorry, Dr Tyler. We just wanted to drop Dotty off and can't stay, I have so much things to do today.”  
“That is... not a problem at all.”, the Doctor answered quickly, unable to hide the relief in his voice, “It was very nice of you to bring Dotty home.”  
“Not a problem.”, Rose could hear Amanda through the door.  
“Bye!”, Claire mumbled sadly, apparently back outside with her mother.  
“Bye!”, the others echoed and the door was closed again.  
At least now Rose could just walk into the living room to ask Dotty how things were going, since the girl never much cared about nudity anyway. Not that she WAS in anyway nude. Just inappropriately dressed.   
“Morning Dotty!”, Rose chirped, cup on tea in hand, when she entered the other room and set down on the couch.  
The muffled reply of “Morning!” came from Dotty's room, where she was putting away her things, before running back out and slipping onto the couch, cuddling up to Rose.  
“Edith really liked the book.”, she explained, “I think it might have been more than they expected.”  
“More?”, Rose asked, her brow furrowed in worry, “I thought it was very pretty, seemed fitting.”  
“Yes, but you don't really know how much the people here spend for kids' gifts. And if you account for inflation...”, the Doctor explained.  
“Well, never mind now. So how was it?”  
And Dotty launched into an hour long explanation about food, games and scary stories, her newly braided hair flying manically.  
Later that day the Doctor looked at Rose in confusion, while Dotty had run into the workspace to try something she had come up with the night before. “I thought Dotty would be too mature by now to really have fun with braiding hair and silly stories.”  
“Why? I still think it's funny. Just remember how much fun Martha and I had with preparing for a night out.”  
“No, I much rather remember what happened after.”, the Doctor admitted, grinning widely.  
“Don't say that too loudly. Dotty might here you, and you know her opinion on the matter.”, Rose teased, recalling the morning before.   
“Can I have the phone?”, Dotty interrupted them by shouting through the whole flat.  
“Who do you wanna call? You just spend the whole night with your friends?”, Rose called back, the Doctor flinching at the volume.   
“Who says I want to call someone?”, Dotty's confused voice appeared right behind the Doctor.  
“No. Absolutely not.”, Rose told her sternly.  
“But I NEED the phone.”, Dotty insisted.  
“So do I. But once either of you two is through with it, I won't be able to. Rule Number One of living with Rose: Stay away from household items.”  
The Doctor flinched guiltily.  
“What did you do?”, Rose hissed, her arms crossed in-front of her chest.  
“I kind of needed the toaster for something.”, he admitted quietly.  
“The toaster.”, Rose echoed, “The toaster I JUST bought? THAT toaster?!”  
“Ahm....”, the Doctor started to uncomfortably rub the back of his neck, “Welllllllll, kinda. Yes. I needed...” His voice trailed off, but Rose wasn't letting him off the hook THAT easily, instead simply looking at him sceptically.  
“I needed parts of the wiring.”, the Doctor finished lamely.  
“And it HAD to be the toaster I need for breakfast, instead the wiring from an old one you could have bought somewhere?”  
“Wellll, this one was at hand.”, the Doctor seemed to realize by then that there were some holes in logic. Mainly when it came to his harmonious home-life.  
“I will replace it.”, he tried carefully, with Rose still simply looking at him.  
“And I will do it right now!”, he finally declared, grabbed his valet and keys and made his way to the door.  
“I'll come!”, Dotty proclaimed, “I have questions about the time-vortex.”  
“And I'll set the table, so we can have a real breakfast, once you are back.”, Rose informed them and returned to the kitchen.  
“So... that's a no on the phone then.”, Rose could hear Dotty tell the Doctor matter of factly back in the living room.

Rose had forgotten how easy it was to settle into a routine and watch time go by. She had hated it before, when Hendrik's had taken up so much of her time in a boring, wasting fashion. That routine had been a horrible, mind-numbing thing, that had sucked all the energy out of her. Her time stuck as a maid had been a weird, uncomfortable routine as well, but never really. There had been this constant fear and sense of danger and the revelation of her pregnancy had taken care of almost every sense of a normal day to day life.   
And now? Now Rose was living in London in the 60s and she was, for the lack of a better term, happy. They had a routine, yes, but in a good way. It wasn't boring, it wasn't mind-numbing, it didn't feel like a waste. They all, in their own ways, had a goal to work towards, even if Rose suspected, they might differ quite a bit. Dotty had decided that living her life to the fullest didn't necessarily mean travelling. Although the Doctor and Rose were planning on a couple of week-end trips. Only this time by train. The Doctor was desperate to get them back to the TARDIS, back home, while at the same time constantly worrying about their safety and sometimes Rose asked herself, if he even noticed that maybe those goals clashed. She hated herself for thinking these things later, but right now their time and place was SAFE. Or at least as safe as it was ever going to get. And Rose loved the TARDIS. And she loved travelling with the Doctor, but her main goal right now was bringing a new life into the world and trying to protect her as best, as she could. Sometimes there was this mean voice in her head again, the one she swore never to tell the Doctor about, who had been so incredible, so helpful and so motivated in all he did for them. But Rose couldn't help to think back to that conversation she'd had with Martha, about maybe staying on earth. Of building a real home for her daughter and being surrounded by friends. It was alright for them, obviously, to travel from place to place, but was it fair to their daughter? Looking at Dotty now, who was too intelligent and so different from her classmates, but still loved spending time with them. How could she ever truly take that away from her child. To have a mate, like Shireen. Her poor friend, whom she hadn't visited in years. Rose vouched to bury these thoughts for now. It wouldn't do to upset the Doctor now, but once their baby became old enough they would have to have that conversation. Because as much as Rose loved the Doctor and their life in the TARDIS, she had other responsibilities now, too.

“Mum?”, Dotty asked, after they had been in their flat for three weeks, “Ellie asked, if I'd like to stay over next Saturday night.”  
“What? Another party?”, Rose asked, putting down the book she's been reading, while launching on the couch.  
“No. Just me.”, Dotty stated, lifted Roses leg up and then slit under them.. Rose moved a bit more to the edge of the couch, allowing Dotty to stretch out beside her, pressed between Rose and the backrest, her hand pressed to Rose's now much more visible belly and her ear to Rose's side. It was Dotty's favourite way to relax, claiming she liked to listen to her heartbeat, and Rose had to admit it was much more comfortable than it looked.   
“Would you like to go?”, Rose asked carefully.  
“Yes, very much. Although I think Mrs Bearn is offering, so you and Dad can have some time without me. Is that necessary? Does my presence annoy you?”  
“No!”, Rose hurried to reply, before adding: “But sometimes it is nice to just be by ourselves and I think that's what Mrs Bearn wants to help us with. It would be time for social appointments. Like I wanted to invite Martha, June and their husbands over for Dinner.”  
“And I would look out of place, because I still look like a child. Although for my species now I am old enough to have children for myself.”, Dotty mused. Rose froze, she hadn't thought of that. Staying with them meant giving up on children for herself as well. Embarrassingly she decided to take the coward's way out and leave that comment without trying to figure out a response, not that Dotty actually needed one.   
“I think I figured out why the baby is not part human.”, Dotty interrupted Rose's snoozing ten minutes later, still so firmly cuddled against her.  
“What?”, Rose asked, it took her brain a moment to catch on.  
“Time lords. Their special abilities derived from prolonged exposure to the time vortex.”, Dotty explained and Rose tried to stay as quiet as possible. She hadn't known that. The Doctor still didn't discuss these things with her, but apparently he did so with Dotty, and if Rose were do me honest: that stung a little.  
“Well,”, Dotty continued and Rose felt herself grinning. She still loved how Dotty had picked that habit up from the Doctor, “Dad is already time lord, you took the vortex into yourself once and I assume this baby was conceived while in the vortex, correct?”  
“Ahm...”, Rose started, a little uncomfortable, but Dotty again didn't really want an answer.   
“All these factors probably let to the baby being time lord. Her biology is practically drenched and rooted in the vortex.”  
Rose had to admit that it sounded like a pretty solid argument.   
“Did you ask Dad about it?”  
“Oh no. I tried. He gets weirdly uncomfortable, when I mention sexual intercourse. His ears turn red.”  
“That they do.”, Rose laughed.  
“Is it specific to his species to be this uncomfortable about a natural, biological fact? Most species partake in it. It's a necessity for survival.”, Dotty mused.  
“I honestly don't know. Maybe he picked it up during all these times he spend with humans.”, Rose grinned.  
“Yes. They are strange that way, too. I noticed.”, Dotty sighed and Rose couldn't help herself. It didn't matter how mature Dotty now was, she pressed a loving kiss down on her head.   
Their tender moment was interrupted by the Doctor triumphantly exiting his workspace, an odd looking machine in his hand, waving it manically.  
“It works! I think... no. I know. It finally works!”  
“What is it?”, Rose asked, her voice raw from sleepiness.  
“The timey-wimey-detector!”, the Doctor proclaimed.   
Rose just stared at him blankly. She was sure she had heart that term before, but she couldn't really place it. Dotty seemed to know what he was talking about, though, she made a short noise of appreciation, but didn't comment further. The Doctor seemed deeply disappointed by their lack of interest.  
“Didn't you listen?! It's finally done! Don't you realize how important that is?!”  
When they both continued to stay silent, the Doctor grumbled something about 'strange females' and moved towards the front-door.  
“I will go and check it out.”, he informed them grumpily, “Not that you actually care.”  
“Have fun!”, Rose and Dotty replied in unison and five minutes later they switched the TV on, watching in comfortable, companionable silence.  
The Doctor returned two hours later, his back a little hunched and his timey-wimey-detector carefully held a little away from his body.  
“What went wrong?”, Dotty asked, earning her an unhappy look from the Doctor. “What makes you immediately think something went wrong?”  
“The look on your face, to be honest.”, Rose replied.  
“I found a new way to boil eggs.”, he simply stated and shut himself into his room and refused to come out for the rest of the evening. Not even for dinner.

On Saturday evening the Doctor set off to take Dotty over to Ellie's home. Rose would have loved to take her and see Iseabail in the process, but she had invited her colleagues over, so it would only be fair, if she were the one to cook the meal. She had asked the Doctor and Dotty on their opinion of what to make and they had both voted for Shepherd's Pie. Apparently it had turned into their favourite family meal and since it was somewhat easy to do, Rose promised Dotty to prepare more, so she could have the left-overs. Martha and Robert arrived first and surprisingly enough before the Doctor returned. He probably got stuck with tea. Martha gave Rose a quick hug and Robert gave her a firm handshake, they had met several times by now, since the retired Robert liked to drop in from time to time. He was a quite, tall man, who was still handsome and gave off a strong, calm sense of security, that made Rose instantly like him.   
Rose invited them in and gave them a quick tour. Robert looked extremely interested when he got a fleeting look at the Doctor's work-space, but Rose stopped him from taking a closer look. Absolutely no need to risk starting the Digital Revolution early. They had just settled down on the couch, their meal still in the oven, when the Doctor returned, looking slightly dishevelled. He opened his mouth to say something, before noticing 50% of their guests had already arrived. Rose decided to ignore his behaviour, she was sure there was a story there, but if it wasn't immediately relevant or dangerous, it would have to wait. To their credit, Martha and Robert chose to ignore the Doctor's unconventional entry as well. With his reputation as a slightly mad genius around the neighbourhood, the Doctor could get away with quite a lot of things.  
The door-bell rang, sparing them the pain of having a way to end the awkward silence, June and her husband Jamie must have been right behind the Doctor, who was still standing right next to the door . No one moved. Rose cleared her voice and gave the Doctor a nod. He just stared at her blankly for ten seconds, before suddenly realizing: “The door. Right!”, and turned around to open it. Rose, Martha and Robert got up as well, when June's smiling face appeared behind the Doctor's shoulder, holding a basket and accompanied by what could only be her husband. He was a young, small man with a nice, round face and blonde hair, giving them a nervous, but optimistic smile. The Doctor ushered them inside and greetings and introductions were made all around. Jamie's smile flickered slightly when he was introduced to Rose, he opened his mouth as if to say something besides his friendly greeting, but closed it again.   
“Everything all right, dear?”, Martha asked him.  
“Oh yes, sorry, for a moment there I thought Mrs Tyler looked awfully familiar.”, he admitted and gave her a sheepish grin.  
“I might.”, Rose gave him the standard time-traveller-response, “I just have one of these faces.”  
No one looked really convinced by that, but everyone was too polite to bring it up again.   
Their dinner was a rather loud and joyous affair. Martha wanted to know all there was about Dotty, school and friends, Robert voiced his thoughts on the upcoming moon-landing and what it might mean for Earth and Jamie did get a slightly strange look from him, when he pointed out that he absolutely believed in extraterrestrial life. Apparently Robert didn't agree and wanted to comment at that, but it looked like Martha gave him a swift kick under the table and Rose had trouble stopping herself from laughing. At least these things didn't change.   
“What is it that you do, Jamie?”, Rose asked him carefully, before the three men could launch into another big discussion with the potential of outing the Doctor's too great knowledge.   
“Oh. I am a doctor.”, Jamie laughed, “I work in a hospital in the city.”  
“Oh, that's nice!”, Rose smiled, “Although I must admit I am not too big a fan of hospitals, either you are bored to death... or weird things are happening.”  
“That is true, I must admit”, Jamie laughed, at least partly in jest, “but I all but grew up in a hospital. So it seemed like the logical thing to stay.”  
The Doctor's eyes, that had been wandering around the table before, taking everything in, zoomed in on Jamie, giving him a careful once-over, before returning his gaze to the whole group. Another thing Rose would have to ask him about later.   
Their guests did leave surprisingly late, but not in a bad way. After dinner and some wine, they had set down in the living room, talked about this and that... and Rose had had some genuine fun.  
“I really like them all.”, Rose told the Doctor later in bed, after they'd cleaned the kitchen and did the dishes.   
“Yes. They seem like good people, you have a habit of finding people like that.”, the Doctor grinned, nuzzling his face into her hair.  
“What happened earlier that you were so late?”  
“Oh! My timey-wimey-detector went off. Not good. I followed the signal and ran right into a time agent. Strange looking guy, even for a time agent. His tech apparently sensed the detector, so he followed me. Took me a while to get rid of him.”  
“We couldn't have asked him for help?”, Rose asked, thinking of Jack's smiling face. Before remembering that he had quit the agency. And for a reason. “No.”, she answered her own question, “We really couldn't have.”   
“We will have to follow the plan now. Otherwise it's a paradox.”, the Doctor mumbled, his voice dangerously trailing off. He was on the verge of falling asleep.   
“Is everything in order?”, Rose asked carefully.  
“Mhhhh. I got the tickets. I booked the B&B. We'll be fine.”, he mumbled. Rose just knew his eyes were already closed.   
“Scotland”, she grinned, “We haven't been there in a while.”  
“I am sure Dotty will love it.”, came the muffled response.  
Rose just smiled, knowing this would be the last answer she'd get for the day.

 

This was the nice thing about time travel, Rose decided. Yes, she was stuck in a different time, but strolling through the ruins of Castle Urquart, she realized that not much had really changed. Those measly 40 years were nothing in comparison to the age of the ruins next to her, or the beauty of the scenery. She had been here before, a lifetime ago on a school trip. Back then she had not been allowed to like ruins and history. Old stuff needed to be boring. But now she was standing there, her hair blowing in the cold, unforgiving wind and her shoulders draped in a new shawl, Taylor tartan. Dotty was running around in a matching shawl, her hair was open as well, flying around widely, her laughter ringing out over the green. The other visitors were smiling fondly at her, as she ran past. The Doctor took her hand and squeezed it, as they both turned around to look over the dark, deep water.  
“It's so beautiful here. All rough, deep and northern.”, Rose smiled happily. The Doctor send her a strange look, but chose not to comment. “I think Dotty likes it, too.”  
“Inverness was a brilliant idea.”, the Doctor admitted and pressed a kiss on her temple.   
Dotty stopped next to them, almost overshooting and lending in the thick greenery below them.   
“It is very pretty here. I like it. So much to see.”, she was smiling openly at them, a rare occasion now, she was much less full of childlike wonder these says.   
“Good surprise then?”, Rose asked hopefully. They had planed and thought about this trip for a while, unsure if and when they could afford another one. And they had talked about the destination for a while... a city tour? The countryside?   
“Yes, it is lovely here. And I liked the boat-trip.”  
“That's a good thing, since we'll have to take the boat to get back later.”, the Doctor grinned, “Now let's find a nice, not too windy place somewhere.”  
“Oh, I found one, maybe a ten minute walk. And we are allowed to picnic there.”  
“Your ten minutes or mine?”, Rose asked her carefully, not in the slightest bit interested in falling over some roots.  
“Yours of course. I am aware that your mobility is highly compromised.”  
“Thank you. I guess.”, but Dotty was of course right. Rose's belly was impossible to miss these days.   
They made their way over to the bank and table Dotty had found and enjoyed their packed lunch, with both the Doctor and Dotty talking a mile a minute and Rose listening and laughing... she could not remember the last time she's been this happy.  
They set like this for an hour before Rose started to get uncomfortable.  
“Are you all right?”, the Doctor asked her, his brow starting to get a crease from constantly worrying about her, Rose was sure.  
“Yes. I just really need to hit the bushes, I fear.”  
The Doctor raised his eyebrow. “We could go back...”  
“No. It's kinda more urgent than that. Don't worry. I will not fall over or anything.”  
“Just shout, if you do. We'll come and get you.”, Dotty informed her with her usual deadpan approach.  
“How kind.”, Rose answered, but couldn't quite hide her wide grin.  
She found a spot fairly quickly and made her way back to her family a couple of minutes later, when she heard a voice behind her that she had never expected to hear again: “Rose?”  
She turned around in shock and really, there he was: the Doctor. Her first Doctor.  
“Doctor?”, she breathed in shock. What exactly was going on here? He knew her, recognized her, but she had no memory of ever having been here with him. “What are you doing here?”  
“Me?!”, he asked her, his voice almost aggressive, “What are YOU doing here? This is almost 40 years off for you.”, his eyes narrowed suspiciously, “Unless you were never human to begin with. No. Does not work. You wouldn't have recognized me.”  
“When was the last time we saw each other? From your perspective I mean?”, Rose asked carefully, trying not to freak out. What the hell was going on?  
“2005. London. I asked you to join me. You said no.”  
“What? No. I did not.”  
“Sure, you did. Said you have to take care of Ricky.”  
“Mickey.”, she corrected him out of habit, “But you came back. You came back immediately and asked again. At least I always thought you did.”  
“I did? Huh.”  
“You did not? I didn't travel with you?!”, Rose could not hide the panic in her voice. The Doctor not coming back for her and her being stuck in her old life, was probably her most recurring nightmare.   
“Maybe I will.”, he answered, his voice thoughtful.  
“Please do. I would appreciate that.”, Rose stated and then grinned widely, when she realized that she sounded like Dotty.  
“So you can come travel with me, until you find yourself a bloke and stay behind?”, he asked, nodding towards her badly concealed mid-drift.  
Ah, Rose thought, he is setting himself up for disappointment. But this was her past, his future. She could not simply tell him things, that much she had definitely picked up on during her travels.  
“Now, Doctor, that's not fair. You can not know the future until you have lived it.”, she chastised.  
He looked taking aback by her tone, but before he could actually reply, there was Dotty's voice interrupting them from afar: “Mum!!! Did you fall over while urinating?!”  
Rose chuckled when she saw the Doctor's horrified face.  
“No!”, she shouted back, not caring that she was probably causing his eardrums to rupture by volume alone.  
“Great! Then I can Dad he can stop worrying.”, and with that Dotty seemed to scamper of again.  
The Doctor stared at her in shock. “How many kids do you actually have?”  
Rose just grinned at him, before pressing a quick kiss on his cheek. “You should definitely go back.”, she grinned at him as she turned around and ran off to join her family.


End file.
